Why not Canadian wheat?

I read an article on foodnavigator.com about the U.K.'s shortage of high protein wheat. Turns out they've had a great yielding harvest, with production 32 per cent above 2007. But protein levels are down 0.9 percentage points, from 12.2 last year to 11.3 this year. As the article says, "The optimum protein level for bread making is generally considered to be between 11.5 and 14 per cent, to allow sufficient dough expansion to avoid squat, dense loaves, but not too much, which creates overly aerated bread."

So it seems the U.K. will have to import high protein wheat to keep its bakers happy. Canada, its former breadbasket, would seem the logical source, right? After all, high protein bread wheat is our specialty. That is why I found it particularly unsettling to see the following quote from Icaro Rebolledo, economist with the U.K.'s Home Grown Cereals Authority (HGCA): “Especially in terms of protein, there is a big problem…For bread-making wheat, there will have to be more imports from the U.S. and from France, if they have it.”

I don't know why Rebolledo would leave Canada off this short list. It might have been a simple oversight. If not, we've got work to do to raise the profile for Canadian wheat in Europe, especially in a year when they need what we've got.

Click this link for the complete article.