Fall
2015
grainswest.com
7
BY LEE HART
THE
FARMGATE
CLASSACTION
WHEAT TALKSTIRSUP THECHAFF
EVERYONE WANTS THE WORLD
to recognize Canada as a producer of
high-quality wheat. Not everyone agrees
that moving 29 well-established wheat
varieties into a new, currently unnamed
class is the right way to go.
The Canadian Grain Commission
(CGC), which launched the reclassifi-
cation review earlier this year, said the
process will increase confidence among
domestic and international customers
looking for high-quality milling wheat.
However, some western farmers and
industry associations see it as a move that
will essentially bench several valuable
varieties, reduce the choices available to
farmers and create an expensive logistics
issue at all levels.
In February 2015, the CGC announced
it was launching a wheat reclassification
consultation. The CGC proposed that
new check varieties be established for the
Canada Western Red Spring (CWRS) and
Canada Prairie Spring Red (CPSR) classes
to improve the quality parameters of those
classes. It would then evaluate all existing
varieties and any that no longer met the
standards would be moved to another
class. The Commission also proposed the
establishment of a new Western Canada
milling class.
In August 2015, the CGC announced,
after industry consultation, that 29 wheat
varieties had been identified for reclassifi-
cation. That included 25 varieties—many
of them well known—in the CWRS class
and four varieties in the CPSR class. The
plan is, after more input from industry
players, to reclassify these 29 varieties
from their respective ranks and place the
majority of them in the new class. The 29
varieties would remain in their respective
classes until Aug. 1, 2017.
The reclassification is necessary to
“maintain customer confidence in
Canadian wheat quality,” said Jim Smolik,
assistant chief commissioner at the CGC.
Virtually all of these varieties just barely
met the quality standards for the class
when they were originally registered, said
Smolik. New, improved check varieties
have come along, and quality parame-
ters are always being reviewed. With the
environmental conditions seen in recent
growing seasons, some of the varieties are
always at the bottom or don’t even meet
the CWRS and CPSR quality standards.
“With our CWRS wheats, gluten
strength is one important factor,” said
Smolik. “And customers are looking to
Canada to supply wheat with a consistent
quality.” If these lower-quality wheats
affect customer confidence, it affects Can-
ada’s wheat-marketing efforts. Farmers
will still be able to grow the reclassified
wheat varieties, and Smolik pointed out
they may have an excellent fit in new and
emerging world markets for products such
as pan breads and noodles.
There has been a range of reactions to
the reclassification proposal.
The Western Canadian Wheat Growers
Association agrees with the plan. “The
Wheat Growers support the move by the
Commission to restore the quality and
integrity of the top milling classes of
wheat,” said Levi Wood, president. “This
move should address concerns expressed
by customers in the past several years
regarding the low gluten strength in Cana-
dian wheat shipments.”
Cereals Canada, which represents
a cross-section of the grain industry,
including producers, processors, shippers,
handlers and seed companies, said the
intention to protect Canada’s quality wheat
reputation is good. But its president, Cam
Dahl, said Cereals Canada believes that
creating another class will raise a logistics
nightmare on the handling side and that
“costs will outweigh the benefits.”
From a producer’s point of view, Henry
Vos, who farms at Fairview and is a
director of the Alberta Wheat Commis-
sion (AWC), doesn’t like the plan at all. “I
am not very impressed with how this has
been handled,” said Vos. “Farmers have
been growing some of these varieties for
50 years, and we’re just saying now they
don’t have CWRS quality? This doesn’t
make sense.”
Vos said it should be up to the value
chain—including producers, marketers
and customers—to decide what to do
with these wheats, and not a regulatory
bystander such as the CGC.
He said reclassifying these wheats will
remove 29 varieties from producer options
and remove a lot of good wheat genetics
and agronomics from Western Canada.
“As this goes ahead, we won’t need a new
classification,” he said. “Because the per-
ception now of these 29 varieties is that
they are lower quality. It will be an excuse
for grain companies to lower prices. No
one will grow [the varieties], and eventu-
ally [they] will drop from the market.”
AWC favours a natural phase-out of the
varieties over time and questions whether
they are having a material impact on the
quality of Canadian shipments. AWC also
contends that insufficient market devel-
opment work has been done to support a
new milling class.
Twenty-nine wheat varieties may be reclassified in the
latest move by the CGC.
