AUSTRALIAN grain producers need to have a consistent product if they are to continue to develop opportunities in Asia, whatever the target use is, according to speakers at the Australian Grains Industry Conference (AGIC) in Singapore last month.
Larisa Cato, of the Australian Export Grain Innovation Centre (AEGIC) said Australia was represented as a provider of wheat for a number of uses in Asia, most notably noodles, but the key across all target sectors was consistency of product.
Dr Cato said grades that were regarded as lower quality in Australia, such as ASW, had a good fit into flatbread, steamed Asian bread and noodle markets.
She said Asian end-users were acutely aware of the end-use characteristics of each grade of wheat and would try and blend to get the same functionality from cheaper wheat, but were overall very conscious of consistency rather than constantly chasing bargain-basement product.
And while North American wheat currently has a lock on the market in many Asian bread making enterprises, Dr Cato said there were opportunities, such as the filo pastry market, for Australain growers.
Even within the baked goods sector, she said a strong technical package from Australia would help win market share.
"Servicing markets with technical information is critical," she said.
Other growing markets include Vietnam, where wheat is used for French style baguettes and instant noodles.
"We need to maintain our profile in noodles and take any new opportunities in baking," Dr Cato said.
Richie Williams, of the Wheat Classification Council via his role as customer quality manager at CBH, said both the WCC and Wheat Quality Australia (WQA) were working hard to classify varieties according to their end use fit.
"The aim is to ensure the quality of Australian wheat, now and into the future, meets the processing and end product requirements of the market place," he said.
He said initiatives such as the wheat variety master list, which lists varieties and their maximum possible paygrade according to region, were a valuable resource.
Along with that, Dr Williams said there was a lot of work done on new varieties to determine their class.
"Samples are sourced from multi-structured trials and there is a data requirement of at least three years.
"In terms of quality para- meters, we use at least 30 different characteristics, including milling attributes and their dough properties."
Dr Williams said variety formed the basis of the class and it was important growers were accurate with their weighbridge declarations to keep the grain in each segregation to its right level in terms of quality.
Principal of grain analytics business Market Check, Brett Stevenson, asked about the possibility of specific varietal segregations, similar to what is done in the malt barley sector.
Jonathan Wilson of Glencore said in the Viterra storage system that Glencore owns, there were some plans to trial varietal segregations, but said it would be difficult logistically to get the throughput in a timely manner at harvest.