ARABLE farmers must learn to think carefully about the variety of wheat they grow, and what the market will be for it, Borders farmer Barclay Forrest, who is chairman of the British Cereals Exports Council, said yesterday.
Speaking at the Royal Show at Stoneleigh, Warwickshire, Mr Forrest, who farms at Duns, said Britain had moved over the past 15 years from being a wheat importing nation to being an exporter, but few farmers had realised it.
The need now was to grow wheats which the market required, he said.
''When you are putting seed in the ground, look at the varieties exporters require and think seriously about it. Thirty per cent of everything we grow will be exported.''
Mr Forrest said wheat ex-ports had now reached more than eight million tonnes a year including three million tonnes being sold in manufactured foods.
Farmers had to consider potential markets rather than just grow what someone would pay them for under the CAP.
''We are lucky to have 83% of our market on our doorstep, and we are not far from doing direct contracts from the farm to mills in Italy or Portugal.
''One advantage we have is our system for grain dealing with merchants, co-ops and a futures market.
''They have none of that in Europe and are very envious.''
Until now, he said, Britain had concentrated on biscuit wheat and the feed wheat market in Europe, but there was a 2.4 million tonne bread market, as yet untouched.
Two new varieties, Abbot and Charger, could get British farmers into that market.
An inward mission of Spanish millers last year had been very excited by Charger. This year they were committed to buying it.
Mr Forrest, who was speaking at a Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors meeting, warned barley growers that they had not yet found markets for the four million tonnes of malting barley expected to be produced this year.
''We did not expect the swing over from feed to malting potential varieties to happen as quickly as it has done,'' he admitted.
There was a home market potential for two million tonnes but production was expected to be double that.
The export council had been looking at new markets in China, South America and the Pacific Rim.
However, with a mountain of barley to dispose of, orders could be taken for shipments of 40,000 tonnes, whereas previously a customer such as China could only be supplied in years of surplus.
''We are planning to offer scholarships to four Chinese brewers to study under Professor Jeff Palmer at Heriot-Watt University,'' said Mr. Forrest.
''We found that many of the brewers were ordering malt from countries where they had been educated. We will bring some of their best brewers to Britain.
''These brewers will then accompany the council's next inward mission to China and introduce them to the brewing industry.''
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