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International Year of Soils ends with a bang in Alberta Attendees at sold-out conference say it was a thrill to gather with people who ‘get’ soil health
Team Canada a hit with foreign wheat buyers Buyers want to know about this year’s crop, talk about what matters most to them, and get to know the farmers who grow the wheat
By Alexis Kienlen AF STAFF / EDMONTON
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f the International Year of Soils didn’t seem like a big deal — then you weren’t at the Western Canada Conference On Soil Health earlier this month. That is, if you could get in. “We originally planned for 250 people, and we had room for 300,” said conference co-chair Tom Fromme. “The facility was able to accommodate an extra 100 and we were still turning people away.” Having the UN designate soils for its international year helped attract attention for the first-ever conference of its kind on the Prairies, said Fromme. But interest in soil health has been building ever since North Dakota producer and cover cropping guru Gabe Brown gave a presentation in Peace Country a few years ago, he added. Although only 35 or 40 producers came out for that first visit, they didn’t stop talking about what they heard — namely, that productivity can take off when you stop treating soil like dirt, said Fromme, research co-ordinator with the North Peace Applied Research Association.
Greg Porozni (back left) with Team Canada mission members and Canadian wheat customers in Jakarta. The whirlwind trip through Asia was an eye-opener, says the Willingdon producer. PHOTO: COURTESY Greg Porozni
see SOIL YEAR } page 6 By Alexis Kienlen AF STAFF
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t was a whirlwind visit — seven Asian nations in just 18 days — and an eyeopener for Willingdon farmer Greg Porozni. “It was a gruelling trip, but it was good,” Porozni said after his recent Team Canada mission. “All we did was travel and present and we kept moving.” The chair of Cereals Canada travelled with other grain industry officials to Japan, China, Korea, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Bangladesh, and learned something with every visit. “Japan wants the highest quality — it only wants No. 1 with fairly high protein, between 13.5 and 14 per cent protein,” he said.
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Other Asian countries are looking for No. 2, blending Canadian Prairie Spring with wheat from the Black Sea region or Canadian Hard Red with low-protein wheats. “That’s part of why hard red spring, especially Canadian Hard Red Spring, is in such demand. It’s because it’s so versatile,” said Porozni. “Part of that has to do with our (Canadian Grain Commission) classification system, and (because Prairie) growers do a good job of growing high-gluten, high-protein wheat.” And that bodes well for the future. One Asian grain official told Porozni that the Chinese middle class is expected to grow by 600 million in the next 20 years. The middle class in the Philippines, Indonesia, and Bangladesh is becoming larger as well, and millers are expanding their capacity and planning to buy more Canadian wheat.
Buyers were also pretty excited about shipping prices, which have plunged along with demand for other commodities in the last couple of years. “If you can believe it, ocean freight from Vancouver to Singapore is $12 a tonne,” said Porozni. “Wheat is moving everywhere throughout the world because the ocean freight is so low.” Henry Vos had a somewhat less hectic schedule on his Team Canada travels, but still squeezed in visits to London and the Italian cities of Foggia and Bologna in a six-day trip to Europe. There are many long-standing European customers of Canadian wheat, a fact driven home by one British official. “In the U.K., the managing director of the miller and bakers’ association
see TEAM CANADA } page 7
Alberta home to new grain company } PAGE 28