April 29, 2012

 

GrainGrowers promotes Australian wheat to China

 

 

GrainGrowers Limited recently hosted a seminar in China as part of a project to promote Australian wheat to China's lucrative flour and noodle industry.

 

General Manager of technical services Ken Quail said China was the world's biggest wheat producer and consumer and its demand for the grain would continue to grow.

 

"Australian grain producers have a valuable opportunity to tap into this market given our close proximity to China and the outstanding quality, versatility and adaptability of Australian wheat," Quail said.

 

"While China produces enough wheat to be self-sufficient, its quality is extremely variable and this is where Australian wheat can help.

 

"By blending Australian and Chinese wheat, China can produce noodles of higher quality to meet the discerning tastes of its growing middleclass."

 

China consumes more than 30 million tonnes of wheat a year in the form of noodles, a staple food. Quail said GrainGrowers held noodle workshops in Beijing and Wuxi in October 2010 to understand Chinese noodle preferences.

 

"We then exchanged wheat samples with our Chinese collaborators, including China's largest grain, food and oil company COFCO, and completed detailed wheat-blending studies to determine the impact of blending," Quail said.

 

"The results, presented at the recent seminar, confirmed that flour colour, protein and starch characteristics of Australian wheat could significantly improve noodle quality.

 

"In fact, Chinese experts commented that noodles made with Australian wheat were the best they had ever tasted. Now they just have to decide what level of noodle quality they want, determined by what proportion of Australian wheat they use."

 

The project was established by GrainGrowers and supported by the GRDC. GrainGrowers chairman John Eastburn said the not-for-profit organisation was committed to improving market access and opportunities for Australian grain producers.

 

GrainGrowers is Australia's national, independent, member-based, financially sustainable, technically resourced, grain producer organisation. Membership is open to all Australian grain producers and is free until June 30.