But it also can cause autoimmune reactions such as celiac disease, which is growing in prevalence worldwide.

Researchers at the University of California, Davis, have deleted a cluster of genes in wheat that generates gluten proteins that can trigger immune reactions without harming the breadmaking quality of this globally nutritious crop.

Lead researcher Maria Rottersman said this won’t produce a celiac-safe form of wheat but represents a critical step forward in celiac disease research.

“The gluten proteins we eliminated are the ones that trigger the strongest response in people with celiac disease, and their elimination can reduce the risk of triggering the disease in people without celiac disease,” said wheat geneticist Jorge Dubcovsky, one of the researchers working with Rottersman.

Gluten is comprised of two classes of proteins — glutenins and gliadins — and deleting them all would lower the quality of bread. The research team used gamma radiation to target and delete alpha-gliadins, which can cause severe reactions in people with celiac disease. Removing alpha-gliadins can create a less allergenic wheat.

The team produced seeds from these edited varieties and tested the quality of the wheat and dough at the California Wheat Commission quality lab. Once the value of these breeding lines was established, they were deposited in the Germplasm Resources Information Network, or GRIN, operated by the Agricultural Research Service in the United States Department of Agriculture to make them widely available.

“The exciting thing that we found is that the quality of the flour produced by this wheat is actually, in some cases, improved,” Rottersman said. “Growers can not only grow it but can expect to have a higher quality product, which I think is a huge incentive for folks to widely adopt this variety. They can be planted in the same way that normal wheat is planted.”

The varieties are conventionally bred, with artisanal bakers, millers and farm-to-fork operations expressing interest in them.

The post Researchers delete proteins in wheat harmful to people with celiac disease appeared first on Farmtario.

“We are sorry for the price-fixing behaviour we discovered and self-reported in 2015. This behaviour should never have happened,” said Galen G. Weston, Loblaw’s chair and chair and CEO of George Weston.

“Reaching a settlement on this matter was the right thing to do in response to previous behaviour that did not meet our values and ethical standards.”

The total settlement includes a cash payment of $404 million and $96 million that has already been paid through the “Loblaw Card program,” according to a news release from George Weston Limited.

The decision had not been finalized or received court approval as of July 25. Once approved, it will be the largest anti-trust settlement in Canadian history according to class action firm LPC Advocats

In late 2017, Canada’s competition bureau began an investigation over allegations of industry-wide bread price fixing between the late 2000s and early 2010s.

In early 2018, customers were offered $25 gift cards as an olive-branch related to the price-fixing. CBC reported at the time that those who received the cards could still participate in a class-action suit, but the $25 would be deducted from any payout.

The parties named in the class action suite are Loblaw, George Weston, Canada Bread, Sobeys, Metro, Wal-Mart and Giant Tiger, according to LPC Advocats’ website.

The bureau found grocers had colluded to raise bread prices.

In 2023, Canada Bread (Bimbo Canada), which makes Dempsters, Villaggio, Hostess and other familiar brands, was fined $50 million for its part in the price-fixing.

The post Loblaw and parent company to pay out $500 million in bread price fixing settlement appeared first on Farmtario.

Ontario’s Superior Court on Wednesday sentenced Toronto-based Canada Bread Co. after the company pled guilty to four counts of fixing bread prices in 2007 and 2011.

The allegations to which Canada Bread pled guilty came to light in an “industry-wide” federal investigation launched in 2017 by the Competition Bureau. The bureau defines price-fixing as a form of illegal cartel behaviour in which two or more competing businesses agree to set the same prices for goods or services.

According to the federal Public Prosecution Service, an agreed statement of facts filed in court has Canada Bread — which at the time was majority-owned by Maple Leaf Foods — admitting it entered into arrangements with competitor Weston Foods and others to increase wholesale prices on four occasions.

The arrangements, according to the statement of facts, led to two price increases — one each in October 2007 and March 2011. The Competition Bureau, in a separate release Wednesday, said the increased prices affected “various bagged and sliced bread products, such as sandwich bread, hot dog buns and rolls.”

Canada Bread, citing court documents, said that in 2007 and 2010-11, “one or more” senior executives at Weston made four pricing arrangements directly with the then-CEO of Canada Bread.

Weston, its sister firm Loblaw and their parent firm George Weston Ltd. have received immunity from prosecution in exchange for “full co-operation” with the bureau’s investigation, the bureau said.

READ MORE: Loblaw, Weston bake the numbers, burn consumers

The $50 million fine on Canada Bread was the maximum applicable, at $10 million each for the pre-2010 counts and $25 million each for the remaining two counts, minus a “leniency rebate” of about 30 per cent, given the company’s guilty plea and current co-operation with the probe.

The Competition Bureau on Wednesday described the record fine for Canada Bread as a “significant milestone” in its ongoing investigation, looking at alleged price-fixing between producers to raise wholesale bread prices, as well as alleged price-fixing between grocery stores to raise retail prices.

That ongoing probe continues to investigate other companies, the bureau said Wednesday, naming Maple Leaf as well as retailers Metro, Sobeys, Wal-Mart Canada and Giant Tiger. The bureau said its probe has included search warrants executed at those companies as well as at Canada Bread and at Overwaitea, the B.C. parent of retailer Save-On-Foods.

“Fixing the price of bread — a food staple of Canadian households — was a serious criminal offence,” Matthew Boswell, Canada’s commissioner of competition, said in the bureau’s release. “Our continuing investigation remains a top priority. We are doing everything in our power to pursue those who engage in price-fixing.”

As for Canada Bread, the senior leadership responsible for the price-fixing is no longer with the company, the bureau said. Canada Bread has been owned since 2014 by Mexican bakery giant Grupo Bimbo and now operates under the name Bimbo Canada.

Canada Bread, which went by that name in a separate release Wednesday on the matter, emphasized in that release that Grupo Bimbo “was not told of, nor did it uncover, this prior conduct during the sale process” and that Bimbo “only learned about the conduct in 2017.”

Since then, Canada Bread said, its new management has provided “material and consistent co-operation” to the Competition Bureau in the probe and has “established controls and initiatives to create a first-tier compliance program.”

“Under new ownership, Canada Bread is committed to being a responsible partner to our valued customers and making bread an accessible and reliable food source for Canadians,” vice-president Alice Lee said in Wednesday’s release. “We are pleased to have resolved this matter, and we look forward to building upon our investments in Canada.”

Canada Bread also said Wednesday that Bimbo is “considering all legal options against those responsible for the conduct addressed in court today.”

Bimbo Canada today operates 16 bakeries and 11 distribution centres across Canada. Its retail bread brands include Dempster’s, Pom, Stonemill, Bon Matin and Ben’s, among others. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

The post Canada Bread fined $50 million over price-fixing appeared first on Farmtario.

George Weston Ltd. announced Oct. 26 it would sell its Weston Foods fresh and frozen bakery businesses to an arm of Toronto-based bakery firm FGF Brands for $1.2 billion.

The company expects to close the deal before the end of its first quarter of 2022, pending regulatory approvals.

Fresh and frozen bakery goods by themselves made up about 75 per cent of Weston Foods’ 2020 net sales, the parent firm said, noting it’s still “actively engaged” in selling off that company’s remaining “ambient business,” which includes cookies, cones, crackers and wafers.

Just weeks after announcing a total of $25 million in upgrades for bakery plants in Calgary, New Hampshire and Wisconsin, George Weston said in March it planned to sell the bakery segment and focus instead on its retail and real estate businesses, which operate under the Loblaw and Choice Properties banners respectively.

Weston Foods produces private-label packaged breads, rolls, cakes, donuts, pies, tortillas and cones at plants in eight provinces and 11 states, along with brands such as Country Harvest, Wonder, ACE Bakery, D’Italiano, Casa Mendosa, Dave’s Killer Bread, La Baguetterie, Rubschlager, All But Gluten, and Gadoua.

George Weston had previously sold off its U.S. bread and baked goods business — which included brands such as Arnold, Brownberry and Stroehmann — to Mexican baking giant Grupo Bimbo in 2009, and its Neilson Dairy business to Saputo in 2008.

“The Weston Foods business has been the foundation for the Weston Group in Canada since its establishment in 1882 and the decision to sell it was a difficult one,” CEO Galen Weston said in a release.

FGF, he said, is “another long-standing family business with a strong presence in bakery and a significant footprint in Canada.”

FGF, which has facilities in both Canada and the U.S., bills itself as “a tech company that bakes,” making baked goods for the retail and foodservice sectors.

The company’s own brands include Stonefire flatbreads, Santosh vegetarian and vegan naan breads and Simple Joys cakes and muffins.

FGF co-founder Tejus Ajmera, in Weston’s release, said the company plans to invest in “people, facilities and innovation across our entire operations, in collaboration with Weston Foods president Luc Mongeau and his team.” — Glacier FarmMedia Network

The post Flatbread firm FGF buys Weston Foods bakery business appeared first on Farmtario.

U.S. and Canadian farmers are bracing for a sharply smaller spring wheat harvest due to the driest conditions in decades, as severe weather damages crops across the hemisphere, from heat scorching cherries in the U.S. Pacific Northwest to frost chilling sugarcane in Brazil.

While overall global wheat stocks are large, the drought affects mainly the high-protein spring wheat crop that millers such as Archer Daniels Midland Co and bakers including Grupo Bimbo rely on to produce the texture and moistness in baked goods that consumers expect.

Importers from Britain to China must pay up for limited North American harvests or turn to other suppliers like Australia and Russia.

Minneapolis spring wheat futures are trading near nine-year highs, leaving Camas Country Mill in Eugene, Oregon braced to pay more, said owner Tom Hunton. He plans on passing his higher costs on to the mill’s bakery customers.

Camas Country will rely on stockpiled wheat from last year to top up this year’s supplies to produce flour. But Hunton worries about the drought carrying into next year.

“This isn’t sustainable for anyone,” he said.

In Canada, bread prices may rise as much as 6.5 percent by late this year, said Sylvain Charlebois, director of the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

U.S. prices are more difficult to forecast, since flour prices dropped earlier this year as lockdowns eased and fewer people baked at home, he said.

Steep dropoff

Canada’s spring wheat crop is expected at between 16 and 20 million tonnes, well off last year’s 25.8 million, said Bruce Burnett, director of markets and weather information at MarketsFarm. Just 16 percent of spring wheat in Saskatchewan and 21.6 percent in Alberta is in good or excellent condition, according to provincial governments.

The U.S. spring wheat harvest is expected to drop 41 percent from a year ago to the lowest production in 33 years, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

The USDA on Monday estimated that just 10 percent of the country’s spring wheat crop was in good or excellent condition, down from 73 percent a year ago and the lowest rating for this point of the season since the 1988 drought.

In Montana, where the USDA has deemed 42 percent of spring wheat in very poor condition and another 43 percent in poor shape, growers are buying out of sales contracts inked earlier in the season with elevators because they will not have wheat to deliver.

“I cancelled more contracts last week than I wrote. If they don’t have a crop, they have no choice,” said one commercial grain buyer who declined to be named as he is not authorized to speak to media.

Importers adjust

China, which normally buys modest amounts of North American spring wheat to make high-quality bread and baked goods, will likely buy more from other suppliers such as Australia, said a China-based trader with an international trading house.

Russia may make up some of North America’s shortfall in the global market. Southern Russia, the country’s main wheat-producing region, is producing wheat with higher protein than a year ago, Dmitry Rylko, head of the Moscow-based IKAR consultancy, said.

Spring wheat from Russia and Kazakhstan, however, does not have the same characteristics important for baking, such as gluten strength, as U.S. hard red spring wheat and Canadian Western Red Spring, said Mike Spier of U.S. Wheat Associates, a trade group that promotes U.S. wheat overseas.

The drought will force bakers to change how they work with flour, adding more water to compensate for dryness and making other adjustments to avoid producing crustier-than-usual buns, said Glenn Wilde, owner of Harvest Bakery in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

United Kingdom baker Warburtons buys half of its wheat from Canada, about 200,000 tonnes annually, grown by farmers to the company’s specifications. The company will pay more this year to ensure it acquires enough Canadian spring wheat, said Adam Dyck, Warburtons’ Canadian program manager, adding that many kernels may be too shrivelled to mill into flour.

Dyck said he is accustomed to seeing pockets of drought on the Prairies, but nothing this widespread.

“It’s pretty unique for this generation,” he said.

– Reporting by Rod Nickel in Winnipeg and Karl Plume in Fargo, North Dakota; additional reporting by Julie Ingwersen in Chicago; Sybille de La Hamaide in Paris, Polina Devitt in Moscow, Hallie Gu in Beijing, Pavel Polityuk in Kyiv.

The post Millers, bakers fret as drought withers North America’s spring wheat appeared first on Farmtario.

However, that uncertainty could also makes predicting market trends rather difficult, according to an analyst.

“All of my comments come with a caveat that any given headline could change everything,” said John Weyer, director of commercial hedging with Walsh Trading in Chicago, adding “we seem to be getting those frequently.”

Wheat is showing the most strength of the grains and oilseeds, with the May Chicago contract rising by about 80 cents per bushel off of its lows to trade above $5.70 per bushel on Wednesday (all figures US$).

“Nobody seems to be too concerned about how many carbs they’re eating,” said Weyer, on the increased retail demand for pasta and flour that was finding its way to support the futures.

Stimulus measures introduced to counter the negative economic impact of the COVID-19 coronavirus were also supportive, according to Weyer, with production issues in France and the Black Sea region also underpinning wheat values.

He expected the May wheat contract would face resistance in the $5.80-$5.90 per bushel area, with a pullback to $5.50 a possibility before the market takes another run higher.

However, “we’re in uncharted territory,” and Weyer noted any fresh news could easily tip the grain markets one way or the other.

Strength in the U.S. dollar could also sway the markets, with the rising currency making U.S. grains and oilseeds less attractive for international buyers.

— Phil Franz-Warkentin reports for MarketsFarm from Winnipeg.

The post CBOT weekly outlook: Wheat futures underpinned for now appeared first on Farmtario.

Corn futures closed modestly higher while soybean futures turned lower.

CBOT May wheat settled up 18-1/2 cents at $5.80 per bushel after earlier reaching $5.83-1/4, the contract’s highest since Jan. 22 (all figures US$) .

CBOT May corn ended up 1-1/4 cents at $3.48-1/2 a bushel while May soybeans fell 5-1/4 cents to finish at $8.81-1/2 a bushel.

Wheat charged, with the spot May contract gaining sharply against back months on spreads.

“The clearing of retail bread off the shelves was really helping the wheat market jump initially, but adding to that is a little bit of a food security issue and a little bit of an expansion of the wheat pipeline,” said Terry Roggensack, analyst with the Hightower Report in Chicago.

The wheat rally also reflects tight supplies of U.S. soft red winter wheat, the crop that underlies the CBOT contract, at a time when global traders are seeking to buy wheat futures in the most liquid market.

“Demand for wheat futures is greater than the demand for the wheat itself,” said Austin Damiani, an independent trader. “Order flow from financial players coming in to buy (CBOT wheat) futures as a proxy for world wheat is creating dislocations between the various contract months,” Damiani said.

Corn found support from fresh export demand. The U.S. Department of Agriculture said private exporters sold 138,000 tonnes of U.S. corn to unknown destinations.

“The rumours of China buying, and the unknown sale actually seen this morning, are going to keep (futures) relatively firm heading into the stocks and acreage reports,” said Mike Zuzulo of Global Commodity Analytics, referring to reports due from USDA on March 31.

Soybean futures turned lower, retreating from early gains. But worries about potential disruptions of supplies from South America due to coronavirus measures underpinned the market.

“The concern is if a major port like Santos in Brazil or Rosario in Argentina shuts down completely. Then you could see demand move en masse towards the U.S. for soymeal and soyoil,” said Michael Magdovitz, commodity analyst with Rabobank.

Soybean deliveries to crushing plants have been severely cut in Argentina, the world’s top supplier of soymeal livestock feed, as the country reacts to the coronavirus pandemic, the local grains export industry chamber said on Tuesday.

— Julie Ingwersen is a Reuters commodities correspondent in Chicago; additional reporting by Christopher Walljasper in Chicago, Gus Trompiz in Paris and Naveen Thukral in Singapore.

The post U.S. grains: Wheat climbs on global demand for bread appeared first on Farmtario.

The virus’ spread prompted orders to stay at home in some U.S. states, including New York, California and Illinois last week, following similar measures in Asia and Europe. Depleted store shelves in both the U.S. and Canada reflect hoarding and a spike in demand for foods consumed at home.

Chicago May wheat futures were up more than three per cent on Monday and hit a one-month high on strong global demand, while premiums for certain grades of milling wheat surged last week.

“There is a ton of pressure to produce to fulfill customer demand while also dealing with the obvious need to be extra cautious with our labour pool,” said Terry Tyson, general manager of the Canadian unit of Minnesota-based Grain Millers, which supplies groats — hulled oat kernels — to food companies and grocers.

The company finished building a second mill at Yorkton, Sask. in November but was not planning to run it at full capacity yet. Now it may hire staff sooner to increase production.

The U.S. is the world’s fifth-largest wheat producer and consumer; Canada is the sixth-largest grower.

Denver-based Ardent Mills — North America’s biggest miller and a joint venture of ConAgra Brands, Cargill and CHS — is buying more wheat and durum used in pasta from farmers to boost flour production, said Buck Vanniejenhuis, the company’s general manager for Canada.

“The flour is in production and the mills are running fine. People shouldn’t be concerned about supply. It’s a demand issue,” Vanniejenhuis said.

The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization warned that global panic buying and hoarding could lead to shortages — even though there are ample supplies.

Robb MacKie, chief executive of the American Bakers Association, whose members include Grupo Bimbo and Flowers Foods, said many bakeries are running continuously and have streamlined operations, dropping niche products in favour of bread and cookies.

“Most of our members are cranking 24-7. They’ve added shifts and are working around the clock to get product made,” MacKie said.

Families are now preparing three daily meals at home, instead of one, causing them to load their pantries with bread, said Justin Gilpin, chief executive of the Kansas Wheat Commission, a farmer-funded advocacy group.

For farmers who struggled with a wet harvest last year, increased demand comes at a good time.

“My wife and I went into the grocery store and I was quite happy to see the flour was gone, baking supplies were gone,” said Matt Sawyer, who grew wheat last year near Acme, Alta.

— Reporting for Reuters by Julie Ingwersen in Chicago and Rod Nickel in Winnipeg.

The post North America’s millers, bakers scramble to satisfy bread binge appeared first on Farmtario.

Soybeans rose on expectations of rising demand for soymeal, a feed ingredient. Corn followed the firm trend but rallies were capped by poor margins for producers of corn-based ethanol fuel.

Chicago Board of Trade May wheat settled up 23-1/4 cents at $5.62-1/2 after reaching $5.63-1/4, its highest since Feb. 21 (all figures US$).

CBOT May soybeans ended up 21-1/2 cents at $8.84 a bushel and May corn finished down 1/4 cent at $3.43-1/2 a bushel.

Wheat led the way up, reflecting milling demand as the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus has led to U.S. consumer stockpiling of staples such as bread and pasta.

“A lot of it has to do with the virus. Bread is flying off the shelves. There is some concern; Will the flour mills be able to continue, due to virus concerns?” said Tom Fritz, a partner with Chicago-based EFG Group.

Fresh export demand lent support. Chinese importers last week signed deals to buy 340,000 tonnes of U.S. hard red winter wheat, their first purchase of the grain since late 2017.

And Russian wheat export prices stabilized last week after seven weeks of decline.

“Late last week, there was a global push to originate wheat,” Fritz said.

The plunge in crude oil futures this month has depressed margins for the ethanol sector, which is projected to use nearly 40 per cent of the 2019 U.S. corn crop. That factor has hung over the CBOT corn market, dragging futures to contract lows last week, although values closed little changed on Monday.

Expectations that ethanol plants will scale back production, curbing supplies of distillers’ dried grains (DDGs), a byproduct used in livestock feed, have lifted prices for soymeal, a competing feed ingredient.

U.S. ethanol producer POET said it suspended corn buying “at a number of locations” due to weak biofuel demand and is evaluating its production levels.

The strength in soymeal futures continued to lift CBOT soybeans on Monday, with CBOT May soybeans reaching $8.85-1/4 a bushel, the contract’s highest since March 6.

“The slowdown in the ethanol grind, there’s not as many DDGs being made. That creates a greater demand for soybean meal,” Fritz said.

The spread of COVID-19 in South America has also stoked worries about shipments of soy. Argentina is the world’s top soymeal supplier and Brazil is the biggest global soybean exporter.

— Reporting for Reuters by Julie Ingwersen in Chicago; additional reporting by Christopher Walljasper in Chicago, Naveen Thukral in Singapore and Sybille de La Hamaide in Paris.

The post U.S. grains: Wheat jumps to one-month top appeared first on Farmtario.

Bread shortages, caused by difficulties in raising hard currency to import wheat, triggered mass protests which — with the help of the military — toppled the veteran autocrat last April after three decades in power.

The new civilian government, ruling together with the armed forces for a three-year period, has been trying to address bread and fuel shortages since losing about 75 per cent of its oil wealth, a major hard-currency source, when South Sudan seceded in 2011.

Trade Minister Madani Abbas Madani told reporters Sudan had sufficient wheat reserves until May and was in talks for deals to ensure enough stocks until year-end.

“The state is committed to subsidizing bread during the transition period, but aims to ensure justice in distributing the subsidies,” Madani said.

He added that the government would also launch within 45 days commercial bakeries which will sell non-subsidized bread drawing on commercial stocks.

It was not immediately clear whether this would ease the burden on a government budget that is also subsidizing fuel and other basic products in the widely impoverished country.

— Reporting for Reuters by Khaled Abdelaziz and Aidan Lewis; writing by Ulf Laessing.

The post Sudan to continue to subsidize bread but with ‘justice’ appeared first on Farmtario.