Milling & Baking News - April 25, 2017 - 30

Food Ingredient Solutions X
®

Reiser, marketing communications manager.
"Bay State Milling encourages sustainable global organic trade through
its membership in the Organic Trade

Association," Mr. Fish said. "We support local organic food systems such
as The Bread Lab at Washington State
University. A collaborative effort with
the Sustainable Food Lab (a global

network of organizations accelerating
progress toward a more sustainable
food system) is in the early stage."
Brolite, Streamwood, Ill., has offered certified organic products since

Insight on organic grains:
Mercaris provides supply and pricing data
The company also hosts an on-line auction to facilitate organic and non-G.M.O. trade

he first survey took place in 2012. Then Mercaris officially launched
as a company about three years ago, seeking to fill a market need
for data such as acreage and pricing on organic grains, said Alex
Heilman, director of sales.
"We essentially created the largest organic and non-G.M.O. grain
survey across North America," he said.
Mercaris, based in Silver Spring, Md., through its data plans provides
information on organic and non-bioengineered/non-G.M.O. corn, organic
and non-bioengineered/non-G.M.O. soybean, and organic wheat. The
company in the future hopes to add soybean meal and oils, said Mr. Heilman, who previously worked in commodity sales and merchandising for
Miller Milling Co., Minneapolis.
Kellee James, chief executive officer, founded Mercaris after spending five years at start-up company Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX), an
electronic trading platform and registry for spot, futures and options on

year to date on the on-line platform, which was more volume than traded
in all of 2016. The auction covers organic, transitional and non-bioengineered/non-G.M.O. corn, soybeans, wheat and other small grains.
For its clients, Mercaris offers several different data plans, Mr. Heilman
said. A less expensive one is geared toward farmers. A more inclusive
data plan is geared toward large grain companies, large dairies, consumer
product goods companies and venture capitalists.
A geospatial mapping tool helps support the milling industry specifically. It may show potential areas of opportunity, where voids in
the market may be and where competitors are.
To obtain data, Mercaris surveys the first handlers of grain, primarily elevators. About 60 first handlers participate in the survey now.
"Those participants are everyone from small, regional, one-location
elevator (operations) all the way up through some large multinational
companies that maybe have 25-plus locations," Mr. Heilman said.
Non-disclosure agreements are signed. Grain
handlers share volume pricing and other data.
Total U.S. organic acreage by selected crops
Mercaris aggregates the data to publish reports.
U.S.D.A. E.R.S.
Mercaris
Change
Mercaris also tracks imports of organic
Acreage
2006
2008
2010
2011
2016
vs 2011 vs 2006
wheat,
corn and soybeans. Imports account for
Alfalfa/hay
507,571
793,442
779,642
785,970
825,936
5%
63%
more than 50% of domestic consumption in
Corn
137,522
194,637
213,035
234,470
292,919 25% 113%
each of those three organic crops, Mr. Heilman
Wheat
224,782
415,905
348,041
335,829
482,207 44% 115%
said. Organic durum wheat imports in 2016
Oats
65,261
57,374
66,063
62,015
109,151 76%
67%
reached 976,000 bus at an average price of
Barley
47,756
46,954
72,782
63,903
85,491 34%
79%
Sorghum (including milo) 7,343
16,068
14,658
17,360
71,813 314% 878%
$13.76 per bu on a delivered cost basis, acRice
31,053
49,638
42,975
48,533
54,146 12%
74%
cording to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's
Soybeans
114,581
125,621
132,468
132,411
150,789 14%
32%
Foreign Agricultural Service. Organic soybean
Flax
28,219
21,554
27,473
21,468
23,542 10% -17%
imports in 2016 reached 13.8 million bus
Sunflowers
10,640
18,777
10,875
18,072
40,859 126% 284%
worth $270 million, and organic yellow dent
Other oilseeds*
5,948
29,159
24,941
13,287
9,679 -27%
63%
corn imports reached 21.7 million bus worth
Total
1,180,675 1,769,125 1,732,954 1,733,319 2,146,531 24%
82%
$160.4 million.
Mercaris reported domestic organic acreage
*includes canola and safflower acreage
Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture and Mercaris
in 2016 of 482,207 for wheat, 292,919 for corn
and 150,789 for soybeans.
Exports of organic wheat, corn and soybeans grown in the United
carbon, sulfur, clean energy and other environmental derivatives. Chris
Duesing, co-founder and chief technology officer for Mercaris, has 15 States hardly exist because of demand from domestic buyers.
"Organic demand completely outpaces organic supply domestically,"
years of experience in software development and most recently was
Mr. Heilman said "This market does need to grow pretty drastically."
the director of application development for the CCX.
Tracking organic pricing and supply has become less difficult over
Mercaris publishes monthly market updates, quarterly imports reports, an annual acreage report and annual commodity reports. Pric- the past few years.
"When we first started doing this, the organic markets essentially
ing, at a minimum, comes out once a week, Mr. Heilman said.
were really shrouded in secrecy," Mr. Heilman said. "There wasn't nec"That is the bulk and backbone of what we do," he said of pricing.
Mercaris runs national average prices and also breaks out prices essarily a drive for more market transparency. There were a few larger
regionally, between food and feed and between spot and forward. players who had kind of cornered the market, so to speak, and so more
Mercaris divides regions into three in the United States (central, east insight was not necessarily a good thing.
"However, the industry has changed pretty significantly in the last
and west) and two in Canada (east and west).
A Mercaris Auction Platform, an electronic venue, facilitates the buying couple of years. There are also a lot more smaller players that are stepand selling of identity-preserved agricultural commodities. Mercaris on ping in who really do rely on a little more market transparency in order
April 13 said more than 280,000 bus of organic grain had been traded to grow their business and also grow their access to acres." MBN

30 / April 25, 2017 XMilling & Baking News

bakingbusiness.com / world-grain.com

http://www.bakingbusiness.com http://www.world-grain.com

Milling & Baking News - April 25, 2017

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Milling & Baking News - April 25, 2017