There is no denying the quality of UK wheat, according to overseas delegates attending a recent HGCA bread-baking workshop.

For two days, Portuguese, Spanish, Moroccan and Tunisian delegates worked hard to produce baguettes, flatbreads, high-volume rolls and other artisan breads, as well as experimenting with different blends of flour to bring costs down.

For most, UK wheat was a tried-and-tested product with an established reputation, which they already use in blends. But a few of the attendees were experimenting with flour from the UK for the first time, with the common aim of producing a cheaper grist.

Flour from varieties included in the UK export wheat brands, ukp bread wheat and uks soft wheat, was made available at last week's workshop. All of the delegates were involved in practical sessions, so that feedback on the dough's handling ability and consistency was received, as well as an assessment on the finished breads.

All agreed that discovering how UK wheats performed in their national breads was useful and informative, despite some some production issues during the baking process.

Chairman of British Cereal Exports, George Forbes, explained that the workshops had a two-way role. "Obviously, we want to show the potential of UK wheat and how it can be used in their baking processes," he said. "But we also need to educate the UK grower on the requirements of the export market, so that we can be sure of meeting their expectations."

For Paulo Cardosa from Moagem Ceres in Portugal, who had attended previous workshops, the opportunity to produce high volume rolls with dough containing 80% ukp and 20% uks was too good to pass up.

"These rolls need a high protein flour, as they contain a lot of water," he said. "But there's no need for it to all be ukp. That helps to make them more cost-effective."

He also produced artisan bread with 80% water. "Volume is not important in this type of bread, but to get water into the dough we need a high proportion of ukp flour," stressed Mr Cardosa. "The bread came out with a good smell, flavour and crumb structure. And with that much water, it has a shelf life of four to five days."

He was enthusiastic about British wheat and highlights the important of assurance schemes, which matter to the millers. "Every load can be tracked back to the farm it came from. Other countries are only just starting to do the same thing."

For the Tunisians, the chance to try something new and reduce the amount of ukp flour in the mix proved to be exciting. "When we used 80% ukp and 20% uks, the end result was very good and in line with our expectations," said Said Badri of the Tunisian Millers Association.

"But when we changed the mix to 50:50, we also got a very good finished product, with the right colour and volume. It's shown us why UK wheat has such a good reputation and how we could reduce our expenditure."

The Moroccans' experience was similar. Bringing down the amount of ukp flour gave them equally good results, but at a lower unit cost.

Surprisingly, the Spanish representatives encountered more problems than the others. "That was interesting because Spain is our biggest export market," reported Mr Forbes. "And from that, we know our wheat is suitable for their bread."

Oven problems were blamed for some of their difficulties. "The bread was cooked too quickly, which meant that it was burned," explained Oscar Rubio of Haineras Villamayor. "We couldn't control the steaming process in the same way as we can at home."

Kim Little of CCFRA, where the workshop was held, suggested that the issues faced by the Spanish bakers were all processing-based. "In the UK, we only steam once, as our standard bread isn't crusty. For the Spanish breads, the steaming process happens twice and over a longer period of time."

Producing Spanish baguettes to their liking was difficult on this occasion, she accepted. "What we learnt was that to use this type of flour, they would have to change their baking process. But not by a huge amount."

Representatives from both of the North African countries voiced concerns about the fledgling bioethanol market in the UK. "Our worry is that UK farms will convert to producing bioethanol as oil prices rise," remarked Abderrahmane Baghdad of Grand Moulins Sassis.

"Supplies of wheat could become very tight - in Morocco the government has already had to step in and subsidise the price of bread."