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Photo:CamBarlow
Ron DePauw producedmore than 65 wheat varieties with his teamduring his 41-year career.
Continued from page 27.
“This was only possible through having
an incredible team at SPARC. You have all
of these amazing people who contribute
to this. It gets to be very complex,” said
DePauw. “It’s mind-boggling the amount
of effort that goes into something like
this.”
WHEAT WORLDWIDE
The majority of Canada’s annual wheat
crop is exported to countries around the
world. Canada’s sterling reputation for
consistency and quality is what attract
international buyers to our grains.
“It really goes back to what the
consumer wants. Our consumer wants
big, beautiful, soft bread that also has
strength and butterability, or crumb
strength,” said Adam Dyck, the program
manager for Warburtons in Winnipeg.
The U.K. bakery is only slightly younger
than Canada at 140 years of age, and for
each and every year it’s been in business,
it’s used Canadian wheat. “We’re a
premium brand in the U.K., quality
is what we’re known for,” said Dyck.
“The Canadian wheat that we source
is the backbone to that quality and the
consistency that we’re able to deliver
with every shipment to the U.K. That’s in
every loaf of bread.”
Each year, Warburtons purchases
200,000 tonnes of Canadian wheat that
is grown by 600 different Prairie farmers
in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. That top-
quality Canadian wheat is blended with a
lower-quality U.K. winter wheat in order
to create a grist, or flour, that will satisfy
customer demand.
With more than 100 products using
Canadian wheat, such as crumpets, pan
bread, sandwich thins and wraps, it’s the
diverse varieties grown in Canada that
afford Warburtons the ability to branch
out and experiment with its products.
“What the Canadian wheat offers us is
the ability to try new things,” said Dyck.
JoAnne Buth is the executive director
at the Canadian International Grains
Institute (Cigi) in Winnipeg where her
organization works tirelessly to promote
wheat worldwide. In her mind, Canada’s
storied wheat quality comes down to
two things. “When we talk about the
quality it’s the gluten, both the strength
and extensibility,” she said. “You’ll see
other wheats that are stronger, but don’t
have the extensibility. If you’re pulling on
something, you want it very elastic.”
Aside from the milling and baking
characteristics, the colour of wheat is just
as important to international grain buyers
and consumers.
Canada Western Amber Durum
wheat has been bred to have a vibrant
yellow hue, popular among North
African countries, such as Morocco,
Tunisia and Algeria, where couscous
reigns supreme. The colour is a novel
adaptation by Canadian durum breeders
over the last 25 years who developed
specific varieties resulting in the distinct
colouration when compared to historical
varieties. The three nations alone
imported a combined 1.85 million metric
tonnes (MMT) of wheat last year. “Colour
is so important for their couscous and
pasta products, they want a bright
yellow colour,” said Buth. “The Canadian
product is highly valued.”
Other top markets for our durum
include Italy at an average of 900 MMT,
the U.S. with 381 MMT and Venezuela
at 300 MMT. Our bread wheats have
an even larger and more diversified
market base, such as Japan with 1.4 MMT,
Indonesia at 1.28 MMT, Bangladesh at
916 MMT, Colombia at 837 MMT and Sri
Lanka at 591 MMT on average each year.
With wheat an essential part
of people’s daily bread both in
Canada and around the world, it
is a homegrown success story that
all began with perhaps the most
unlikely hero, Charles Saunders. In
their book,
The Canadian 100: The
100 Most Influential Canadians of the
20th Century
, historians H. Graham
Rawlinson and J.L. Granatstein wrote
of Charles: “Saunders made possible
the prosperity of the Prairies, and he is
entitled to stand first among the most
influential Canadians of the century.”
The Food Issue
2017
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