The Canadian Wheat New Crop Missions 2018 are well underway. 

The missions are organized and coordinated through three organizations: Cereals Canada, Canadian International Grains Institute (Cigi) and the Canadian Grain Commission.

They take place over six weeks in November and December and include missions to 17 of our top markets for wheat and durum to talk about the quality of this year’s crop. 

Scott Hepworth farms near Assiniboia and is Vice Chair for the Saskatchewan Wheat Development Commission.

He’s on the Durum leg of the tour visiting with customers in Morocco, Algeria, and Italy.

“We have a good story to tell here of really high-quality durum. In fact, we’re kind of looking at it as some of the best durum ever grown on the Canadian prairies.”

Saskatchewan produces about 80 percent of the durum grown in Canada with Canadian durum exports accounting for approximately 50% of the world’s durum trade.

Italy hasn’t been buying a whole lot of Canadian Durum in the last couple of years.

Hepworth says Italy is concerned about glyphosate use, noting that consumers there are under the impression our durum isn’t as healthy as some of our competitors.

“We’re not the only country that has pre-harvested durum sent to Italy. This practice happens in a few markets, they’ve just targeted Canada being the biggest, or we were the biggest importer in Italy. They targeted us and it’s been successful.

He notes Canada has never exceeded the Maximum Residue Limits for glyphosate on durum going into Italy, adding that Canada has a lower MRL than the European Union.