Low protein Australian wheat could be competitive in overseas markets says AEGIC Ken Quail

Wheat use and flour applications around the world are almost as diverse as the number of customers supplied, according to Australian Export Grains Innovation Centre (AEGIC) general manager research and services Ken Quail, so it is important Australia is well positioned to supply the world's needs.

Australian wheat is extremely clean and "low" - which means it is low in screenings and other materials - which makes it better for mills.

On a recent visit to Indonesia, Mr Quail said one of the mills he visited had been using Indian wheat which had caused lots of monetary damage from rocks.

"Milling efficiency was well down because the wheat had so many rocks and things in it," Mr Quail said.

"We tend to take this for granted in Australia."

The low moisture content of Australian wheat is a big selling point, as dry wheat stores for longer periods of time.

"The low moisture content means that you're shipping less water and you're buying less water," Mr Quail said.

"There's a lot of advantages to the moisture content of our wheat."

The white seed coat of Australian wheat enables Australia to enter the Asian noodle market, as it creates "very bright noodles" with good colour characteristics, along with other texture features.

In comparison, North American and Black Sea wheats all have dark red or red brown seed coats - which makes it difficult for mills to get the right colour characteristics.

While Australia is the preferred supplier of wheat for noodle production - ranging from instant to more specialised noodles - across Asia, they are also fairly price sensitive.

Australian wheat prices are very high relative to competitors, so markets such as Indonesia substitute whenever they can.

"A lot of Asia is purchasing wheat from North America to supply their bread and bakery," Mr Quail said.

"But for a lot of Asian products, Australian wheat from a quality perspective is preferred."

Black Sea prices will continue to be lower than Australia's, which Mr Quail said wouldn't be a problem, as long as the price difference stays small.

He said when the difference between the two crept towards the $35 per tonne mark, countries would start to exercise a switch towards the Black Sea.

"The circumstances are very unique in that Western Australia has had these record harvests because of the difficulty of supply from the Black Sea," Mr Quail said.

"Prices are high and they're unable to swap out and substitute Australian wheat because they just can't find alternatives."

Mr Quail believed Australia was delivering effectively to the Asian market, and was excited for future growth - with countries like Indonesia expected to have a population of about 300 million by 2030.

"Asia represents an expanding market and an expanded market for noodles, so it's a very good market for us to supply," he said.

"That's going to mean a lot more instant noodles."

One of the biggest challenges Australian wheat faces is the low protein values from the high yields of the past season.

experienced during transport.

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There is a large amount of low protein wheat, with under nine per cent protein, that is struggling to find a "functional" market.

Low protein is especially a problem for the noodle market, with manufacturers considering mixing Australian wheat with more high protein North American wheat to increase protein content.

Mr Quail said below nine per cent low protein wheat was only usable for the feed market - where buyers consider the energy value above anything else.

He was hopeful that with a surplus of low protein wheat, WA could enter the soft wheat market, which has "terrific future potential".

"If WA can produce soft wheat to under 9pc protein, there's a very significant market in South East Asia," Mr Quail said.

AEGIC has engaged with a range of different plant breeding companies and is co-ordinating demonstration trials in Katanning to get growers engaged.

"We are working with the market to make sure that the soft wheat we produce is the type of soft wheat that is going to meet the requirements of the market, as well as providing that link between the market and them," Mr Quail said.

"When we start producing, we want the market ready to use Australian soft wheat, because obviously it'll be a bit of a change from using the US soft wheat they're currently using now."