Food Business News - March 13, 2012 - 42

Ingredient Markets
Market commentary for one-week period ended March 9, 2012

Bakery Flour
Bookings of bakery ﬂour were limited last week. Prices dropped. Declining wheat futures prices provided bakers an opportunity to ﬁll gaps in nearby coverage and make at least minimal additions to their April-June and even thirdquarter ownership. But volumes involved were not great. In an isolated instance, spring grade coverage was taken into March 2013. Millers estimated bread bakers’ AprilJune coverage at about 50%, not signiﬁcantly changed from the previous week. Discouraging a more active stance were advancing cash hard winter wheat premiums. The hard winter wheat basis in Kansas City was historically strong with premiums on 12%-protein hard winter wheat at 126c over K.C. May compared with 30c over a year earlier and 44c over in March 2010. Spring grade users encountered an altogether different cash wheat situation with Minneapolis premiums on 14%-protein and 15%-protein hard red spring wheat down sharply from a year ago. This encouraged spring grade users to be more active booking ﬂour in many recent weeks than their pan bread baker counterparts. At the same time, domestic demand for hard red spring wheat remained constrained by mills substituting less expensive hard red winter wheat for hard red spring wheat of equivalent protein to the extent practicable. Cookie-cracker and specialty bakers weren’t very active buyers last week. Many already held more extensive

coverage than the bread bakers. Flour grind averaged ﬁve days in the Southwest, Southeast and on the West coast. Upper Midwest grind was near 5½ days, Central states was 5½ to six with a smattering of units at seven days and Northeast grind about 4½ to ﬁve days. FBN

Family Flour
Sales of national and regional brands of family ﬂour began to expand seasonally. Carlot list prices were unchanged. Orders and shipments picked up with Easter less than a month away. This holiday typically is the occasion for increased home baking. Holiday-related product advertisements and promotions were in evidence. Typical in the case of private label ﬂour were grocery shelf offers at two 5-lb bags for $4, which also were commonplace during the key fall baking season. National brands were offered at discounted prices but were not so low as reﬂected in the private label pricing. FBN

Semolina
Bookings of semolina, granulars and durum ﬂour were limited last week. Prices were unchanged. Pasta manufacturers were comfortable with existing coverage that was solid through March and about 70% for AprilJune, according to one miller. Coverage in the third quarter was much lighter with pasta makers hopeful prices will

decline once spring planting begins. The price of choice milling hard amber durum held steady at $10.25 a bu as a delivered Chicago/beyond value. The durum price in Minneapolis was $9.95 a bu. The Chicago price declined steadily from the late-June/early-July 2011 high of $18 a bu and compared with $11.50 a bu in midMarch 2011. Prices exploded during the late spring and summer of 2011 when it became clear northern Plains producers would not be able to plant all the acres they intended. The U.S. Department of Agriculture expected an increase in both spring wheat and durum plantings across the northern Plains. Additionally, California and Arizona producers planted an estimated 230,000 acres to desert durum for harvest this year compared with 200,000 acres in 2011 and 185,000 acres in 2010. The Canadian Wheat Board continued to offer milling durum at $10.50 a bu, Thunder Bay. The C.W.B. on March 1 announced an agreement with Cargill that will enable Canadian producers who choose to continue marketing their wheat and durum through the board but with access to Cargill’s thirty grain handling facilities across western Canada as well as export facilities at Vancouver, British Columbia; Thunder Bay, Ontario, and Baie Comeau, Quebec. FBN

Bakers standard, Kansas City
Bulk, f.o.b. car, $ per cwt
$26.00 $23.00 $20.00 $17.00 $14.00 $11.00 M J S
Previous Year

Bakery ﬂour
Bulk, f.o.b. car, $ per cwt — Change from — Year Mar. 9 Mar. 2 Feb. 24 ago Kansas City Bakers short patent Bakers standard patent Second clear Third clear Minneapolis Spring short patent Spring standard patent High gluten Whole wheat Specialty whole wheat Fancy spring clear First spring clear Rye, white Chicago Cracker Fancy cake New York Winter/spring blend Spring standard patent High gluten Fancy cake Rye, white Los Angeles Bakers standard patent Pastry 18.90 18.80 14.00 … 20.15 20.05 23.05 20.05 20.40 19.90 19.80 19.95 15.00 16.50 21.30 22.40 25.40 18.50 22.45 22.25 22.25 -0.40 -0.40 — ... -0.75 -0.75 -0.75 -0.75 -0.75 -0.75 -0.75 0.05 -0.85 -0.85 -0.40 -0.75 -0.75 -0.85 0.05 -0.40 -0.40 0.60 0.60 — ... -0.05 -0.05 -0.05 -0.05 -0.05 -0.05 -0.05 -0.30 -0.50 -0.50 0.60 0.15 0.15 -0.50 -0.30 0.60 0.60 20.40 20.30 12.50 5.80 25.85 25.75 28.75 25.75 26.10 25.60 25.50 20.55 16.80 18.30 22.80 28.35 31.35 20.30 23.05 21.75 20.75

No. 1 hard amber durum
Track, Minneapolis — Change from — Year $ per bu Mar. 9 Mar. 2 Feb. 24 ago Choice milling 13% 9.95 — — 11.20 cents per bu Amber discount 10.00 — — 10.00 Durum discount 10@40 — — 10@40 Pufﬁng premium 0 — — 0
D
Current Year

Spring standard, Minneapolis
Bulk, f.o.b. car, $ per cwt
$33.00 $29.00 $25.00

Semolina
Bulk, f.o.b. Minneapolis, $ per cwt — Change from — Mar. 9 Mar. 2 Feb. 24 Semolina 23.75 +.05 -.15 Granulars 23.55 +.05 -.15 Flour 23.45 +.05 -.15 First clear 17.50 — — Second clear 13.00 — — Semolina - N.Y. 26.45 +.05 -.15 Year ago 27.00 26.80 26.70 17.05 11.00 29.70

$21.00 $17.00 $13.00 M J S
Previous Year

D
Current Year

Cracker ﬂour, Chicago
Bulk, f.o.b. car, $ per cwt
$22.00

Nationally advertised family ﬂour
Dollars Mar. 9 Family patent, 2-25s papers 24.12 4-10s n.a. 8-5s 18.62 18-2s 20.64 Self-rising n.a. Year ago 22.04 n.a. 16.96 19.14 n.a.

$18.00 $14.00 $10.00 M J S
Previous Year

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Current Year

FOODBUSINESS NEWS

March 13, 2012

Food Business News - March 13, 2012

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