WHEAT TRADERS gave a largely positive reaction to two new export brands for British grain which were unveiled on Friday (Nov 19) at the European Grain Bourse in Paris.

The initiative, run by the British Cereal Exports division of the Home Grown Cereals Authority, aims to make the wide range of varieties available from the UK more intelligible to foreign importers.

Called UKP, for bread wheat, and UKS for soft wheat, each brand has rigidly defined specifications.

Madame Bejaoui, grain buyer for the state-run Tunisian Grain Office said the brands would provide the basis for negotiations.

“The new brand will work much better. We in Tunisia are buying according to specification, not variety,” she said. HGCA hopes other non-EU buyers will also be attracted.

But Dionisio Correia, a Portuguese grain trader for Amorim Lage, said the brands obscured the market:

“In previous years, the UK has made great effort – more than other countries – to speak in terms of varieties.

“In the new logos, you lose the more detailed specification. In my view, that was the strength of the UK market,” he said.

BCE advisory committee chairman, Simon Browne, said that traders used to buying the traditional varieties could continue to do so.

But buyers unfamiliar with UK varieties would now have a concrete, transparent basis on which to approach the market.

“We think it puts three benchmarks down, and we hope it‘ll find a level in the market against French or German brands,” he said.

ukp – bread wheat	uks – soft wheat
W>170	W<120
P/L<0.9	P/L<0.55
Protein 11-13%	Protein 10.5-11.5%
Varieties:  Cordiale, Einstein,  Hereward, Malacca,  Soissons, Solstice,  Xi19	Varieties:  Claire, Consort, Dickson, Istabraq, Nijinsky, Robigus