Indonesian and Philippines flour millers experienced the quality differences between wheat from Australia and competing origins in recent AEGIC workshops.
In December 2024, we worked with major flour mills in Indonesia and the Philippines to benchmark Australian wheat samples against wheats from Australia’s main competitors. A variety of bread and noodle products were compared for some hands-on evaluation of products made of wheat flour sourced from different origins.
The workshop was part of AEGIC’s Benchmarking Australian wheat project, supported by the Australian Government through the Agricultural Trade and Market Access Cooperation (ATMAC) program, facilitated by Grains Australia.
The project is building a body of evidence of the quality and functionality differences between Australian wheat and its main competitors: North America and the Black Sea region. This information benefits the Australian industry by:
Helping customers understand the benefits and value of Australian wheat.
Highlighting potential improvements to help the Australian industry make informed decisions around classification and breeding.
Positioning Australian wheat as a preferred choice in the region.
Photo: Assessing noodles samples
Noodles
Australian wheat has a great reputation for noodles and is preferred by most millers and their noodle customers because of its excellent colour and colour stability in the end product. However, our exports are under significant pressure from lower cost origins. Like most businesses, flour milling companies are always looking for ways to reduce cost while maintaining acceptable quality and naturally look towards lower cost options. This remains a challenge for Australian wheat exports, especially in lower cost noodle market segments. AEGIC is committed to continual communication of the benefits of Australian wheat for noodles across the region.
Photo: Clear colour differences between Australian wheat (bottom left) and a lower cost origin (bottom right)
Bread
In general, millers in South East Asia don’t prefer Australian wheat for bread, with North American wheat long dominant in the region for baking. However, Australian wheat has certain advantages for “no-time dough” – a bread production method dominant in Australia which the region is expected to adopt more widely in the future.
Demonstrating Australian wheat performance for no-time dough bread production helps customers understand the benefits of using our wheat when adopting this method.
Photo: Assessing bread
Photo: Assessing bread
This project is supported by the Australian Government through the Agricultural Trade and Market Access Cooperation (ATMAC) program, facilitated by Grains Australia.
Detailed insights are provided to Grains Australia to assist with industry decision making.
Would you like to know more? Register for the GRDC Grains Research Updates, Perth (24-25 February 2025) to hear Dr Larisa Cato present on this topic.