Competitiveness, Training and Trade
Wheat
About the Industry | Processing | Trade | Tradition & Quality | Info | Industry Links
The Manitoba Advantage
The unique climate and central location of Manitoba makes it one of the most productive places in the world to grow wheat.
The long warm summer days characteristic of the Canadian prairies coupled with adequate moisture levels and fertile soil provides producers with ideal wheat-growing conditions.
Manitoba's location, in the heart of North America, is close to major processors in Canada and the United States and, being directly located on north-south and east-west shipping routes, Manitoba receives excellent service by road, air and rail.
Taken together, these factors result in high quality wheat that is easily accessible to the end consumer.
About the Industry
Canada is one of the world's largest wheat producers and exporters, and its wheat is renowned for a consistent high quality, which is advantageous to the milling industry.
Annually, Manitoba produces approximately 12-15 percent of Canada's total wheat production.
However, due in part to the significant decline in average wheat prices throughout the 1990s, Manitoba's wheat production has declined from 5.45 million acres in its peak years in the early 1990s, to slightly more than 3.5 million acres at the turn of the century.
In 2001, Manitoba wheat producers harvested over 4.0 million acres. Despite the decline in acres seeded to wheat since the early 1990s, it still occupies the largest area of any annual crop grown in Manitoba.
Contracts and options for feed wheat can be traded on the Winnipeg Commodity Exchange.
Processing
Manitoba produces seven classes of Canadian wheat that are offered on the world market.
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Canada Western Red Spring (CWRS) Wheat is hard wheat with superior milling and baking quality offered at various guaranteed levels of protein content.
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Canada Western Red Winter (CWRW) Wheat is also a hard wheat with excellent milling quality used for products such as French bread, flat bread and steamed bread and certain types of noodles.
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Canada Western Amber Durum (CWAD) Wheat produces a high yield of semolina with excellent pasta-making quality.
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Canada Prairie Spring Red (CPSR) Wheat is used for a wide range of products, such as hearth, flat and steamed breads, and noodles.
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Canada Prairie Spring White (CPSW) Wheat, a medium strength wheat, can be used for flat breads, noodles and chapattis.
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Canada Western Extra Strong (CWES) Wheat has extra gluten suitable for blending purposes and for the production of hearth and pan breads.
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Canada Western Soft White Spring (CWSWS) Wheat is a soft wheat of medium-to-low protein content used for flat breads, noodles, steamed breads, chapattis, cookies, cakes and pastry.
Trade
Wheat processed into flour, cereal food and feed, pasta, bread and bakery products comprises a large component of food processing in Manitoba.
While much of the pasta, bread and bakery products are consumed locally; Manitoba exports a substantial amount of flour and feed.
Manitoba has three flour mills, as well as numerous bakeries and local processors of fresh, frozen or dry pasta.
Some wheat is also used to produce ethanol at a plant in Minnedosa, which in turn provides mash for animal feed as a by-product.
Even some of the straw from Manitoba's wheat production is processed into straw particle board at the Isobord Enterprises plant in Elie.
Tradition & Quality
The majority of Manitoba's wheat exports are in the unprocessed form and over 70 countries around the world import Manitoba wheat, including the United States, Iran, Japan and Mexico.
The Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) represents western Canadian wheat producers as their sole exporter of wheat, providing both the producers and buyers with the advantage of single-desk marketing of wheat.
While many of the export contracts are negotiated directly between the CWB and the buyer, there are also sales through a CWB Accredited Exporter, which is a national or multinational company authorized to purchase wheat from the CWB for resale to consumers.
Canada has consistently been a major producer of high-quality wheat on the world stage.
Manitoba's wheat is subject to the strict quality standards of the Canadian Grain Commission's grain quality control program, which includes varietal control, licensing of elevators, product inspection and weighing, and sanitation and quality monitoring programs.
Information and Contacts:
- Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Initiatives
- Trade Assistance Services
- Also view the Value-Added Food Processing Sector
