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Allied Mills Boost Breadwheat Confidence With Attractive Buyback Contracts For Mascot

10th August 2007

Allied Mills is providing a timely boost to quality wheat growing confidence by announcing attractive buyback contracts for key Group 1 varieties, Mascot and Solstice at fixed premiums of £21 and £20/tonne above feed wheat respectively for harvest 2008.

At current November 2008 feed wheat futures prices of £117, these premiums mean growers will still be better off with yields a good 16% below feed varieties. Since the current RL yield gap between the modern Group 1s and the best feed wheats is 10% at most, the new contracts provide a powerful incentive for growing them.

“We are particularly keen to support British breadwheat growing as the cereals market adjusts to reflect the changing requirements of the wheat processing industry,” explains Allied Mills wheat and procurement manager, Howard Leland. We want to continue buying substantial amounts of top quality grain from a strictly limited number of UK varieties for our key Kingsmill, Allinson, Sunblest and Burgen-branded bread grists. So we think it is important to give breadwheat growers confidence for the coming season. After all, our quality control makes security of supply especially important to us.”

Based on standard Group 1 specifications and complete transparency without any special conditions or caveats, the 2008 Allied Mills contracts reflect the company’s independent technical ratings of the varieties.
"The right combination of protein, specific weight and Hagberg is vital in a breadwheat,” notes Howard Leland. “More than this, though, it also has to produce dough of the right strength, extensibility and elasticity. And, above all, it must produce bread that looks and tastes right for today’s demanding retailers and consumers.

“We know both varieties deliver these essentials, with Mascot performing slightly better than Solstice. So our no-nonsense 2008 contracts reflect this. We very much hope they will signal the strength of our support for quality wheat growing across the country.”