Mission was used to gather more information about Indian market
By Diego Flammini, Farms.com
In an effort to promote Canadian wheat and absorb as much information as they could about the Indian wheat market, the Canadian International Grains Institute (Cigi) travelled to India to tour flour companies, bakeries and other wheat facilities.
The visit, which took place between March 14th and 25th was designed to learn about the quality of wheat the Indian market needs to perform at a higher level.
“We wanted to learn more about what they require in terms of flour quality and end product quality,” said Elaine Sopiwnyk, Cigi’s Director of Science and Innovation. “Also while meeting with them to discuss how Canadian wheat could help them improve their quality and provide them with an advantage if they were using it.”
One of the main advantages discussed was using Canadian wheat to establish consistency within India’s wheat sector.
“There are a lot of small farms there and flour mills may deal directly with a farmer so the variation in wheat quality might be different from one farm to another,” Sopiwnyk said. “They’re dealing with some inconsistencies between the wheat shipments they could be receiving.”
She added that in addition to consistency, Canadian wheat could meet higher quality requirements for certain premium end products which spells a potential market opportunity for farmers and industry.
Currently, Canadian wheat is not exported to India because they produce almost 95 million tons of wheat to support their needs. Sopiwnyk said heavy rains during the mission could decrease India’s wheat output by around 5%, making the visit a timely one.
India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi has been in Canada this week meeting with Prime Minister Harper but Cigi said the visit is not connected to their initiative in India.
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