Challenges from poor soft wheat crop cited

WHILE large wheat harvests around the world have increased global supplies and led to price declines, the situation for wheat used to make cookies, crackers and cakes is more challenging.

Manufacturers of those products in the Philippines and other Asian countries rely almost exclusively on flour made from soft white wheat, grown in the Pacific Northwest (PNW) region of the United States. That area, composed of Washington, Oregon and Idaho, have suffered from harsh drought in the past two years, decreasing production and hurting the quality of the soft white wheat crop.

While bakeries prefer high protein wheat flour to make bread, cake manufacturers prefer low-protein flour to make fluffy products, as do cracker manufacturers. The drought in the US PNW has driven up protein levels in soft white wheat.

Millers in the Philippines have been forced to raise the protein levels in their purchase contracts, decreasing the amount of flour they can produce that meets their customers’ demands. So while global wheat prices have fallen over the past year, prices of wheat used as input to these Filipino food products have remained unchanged.