| Prairie Malt To Market Wheat Malts
December 16, 2003
BIGGAR, SK–Prairie Malt is expanding the range of malt
products it offers to customers around the world by developing
new wheat malt processing capabilities in Saskatchewan. The
new line of products complements Prairie Malt’s well-established
line of top quality barley malts, and is another example of
Prairie Malt’s focus on developing innovative processes
that benefit local producers.
Prairie Malt has been building its wheat malt capabilities
over the past two years by investing in wheat malt research
and development, market analysis and infrastructure, and has
teamed up with Cargill’s Specialty Malt business to
deliver high quality “specialty malts” such as
coloured, organic and wheat malts to the marketplace.
“The potential for the wheat malt market remains uncertain,
but we remain encouraged by the level of customer acceptance
of these new products within the North and Latin American
food and brewing industries. We are in a position to offer
our wheat malts to a broader client base now that we’ve
selected sufficient quantities of high quality wheat from
the 2003 crop,” said Jack Foster, director of procurement
for Prairie Malt. “Prairie Malt is committed for the
longer-term and prepared to make the ongoing investment necessary
to ensure farmers have alternative value-added markets for
their crops, and that our brewing customers’ interests
in new products are satisfied,” said Foster.
The Canadian Malting industry faces a number of challenges
including shrinking volumes of malt grade barley and competition
from the United States and China in purchasing raw malt barley
for their domestic processing, rather than the finished product
from companies such as Prairie Malt. While these challenges
are significant and have reduced domestic malt demand and
malting capacity in recent years, Prairie Malt continues to
innovate and identify new opportunities for local producers.
“We are proud to be the only Canadian malting company
partly owned by Western Canadian producers. It makes business
sense that we would try to create and develop markets that
directly benefit our shareholders, as they are the ones supplying
our raw materials,” said Foster. “This is a joint
effort, and we are looking to Canadian producers for even
more of their best wheat samples for potential selection and
malting,” he added.
“The core of Prairie Malt’s business will continue
to be in processing malt barley, but we intend to broaden
our horizons to further develop those selected niche markets
and specialty customers we have nurtured over the many years.
Every effort will be taken to enhance their product needs,”
said David Klinger, vice president of sales for Prairie Malt.
“While risks are certainly anticipated along the way,
we are confident our affiliation with Cargill, given their
expertise in marketing and agri-food supply chain management,
will bring success to this latest venture,” noted Klinger.
In nearly three decades, Prairie Malt has grown into a highly
dynamic, technologically advanced, world-class operation.
In 1998, Prairie Malt became a joint venture partner with
Cargill and the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool.
For more information about Prairie Malt, visit www.prairiemaltltd.com.
Robert Meijer
Director Public Affairs,
Cargill Limited
Telephone: (204) 947-6370
robert_meijer@cargill.com
|
