Milling & Baking News - March 3, 2015 - 34

Ingredient Week

Bakery Flour
Bookings of bakery flour expanded
last week. Price adjustments were minor.
New contract lows in wheat futures
prices with some contracts dropping
to the lowest levels since 2010 encouraged several bakers to cover at least the
futures component of flour contracts
through the end of 2015 and even into
the first and second quarters of 2016.
Participating bakers were well aware of
the vagaries of spring weather markets
and welcomed the opportunity to cover
futures at the favorable levels. At the
same time, some flour buyers remained
watchfully on the sidelines in the hope
futures prices may have further downside potential.
Bakers continued to add at least minimally to their April-June flour coverage.
Commitments to second-quarter flour
contracts (reflecting completed contracts
and component coverage committing bakers to flour contracts) varied widely by
grade. Specialty bread bakers and other
users of spring grades had the most extensive commitments followed by the pan
bread bakers. Cookie-cracker and specialty bakers held the least coverage. Millers
pegged commitments to second-quarter
spring grade contracts at around 75% of
that market's needs. April-June pan bread
flour contract commitments were estimated at 60% and soft flour contract commitments were estimated at 50%.
Millers encouraged additional coverage in all grades.
The cash wheat basis was mostly

Bakery ﬂour

34 / March 3, 2015

Family Flour
Sales of national and regional brands
of family flour were limited last week.
Carlot list prices were unchanged.
Manufacturers prepared for an anticipated increase in orders in the next few
weeks as Easter demand becomes a factor. After Easter, demand for family flour
typically drops into a funk that usually
lasts until schools open in the fall and the
baking season is on the horizon.
There were scattered promotions for
family flour with the most typical being
two 5-lb bags for $5.
In the market for private label flour,
most grocers and other major buyers
earlier covered their prospective flour
requirements through July. MBN

Semolina
Bookings of semolina, granulars and
durum flour were limited last week.
Prices weakened.
The price of choice milling hard amber durum at the Chicago gateway was
quoted at $12.50 a bu, down 30c from a
week earlier. There were indications of
trades late the previous week as much as
50c lower than that but also quotes that
were much higher. Durum mills mostly

were comfortable with durum pipelines
and didn't press for spot offers.
Durum millers indicated many pasta
makers have covered about 55% of their
prospective April-June semolina requirements. Pasta plants vertically integrated
with durum mills were said to have even
more extensive coverage.
Durum mill grind was between five
and six days. While it has not been as difficult for durum mills to access supplies
this year compared with last winter, this
was less true with regard to securing
timely placement of flour cars to transport semolina to end users. There have
been several delays.
Pasta manufacturers, durum millers
and durum growers will gather March
8-10 outside Phoenix for the annual
meeting of the National Pasta Association.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture
during the Agricultural Outlook Forum
in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 20 indicated, "High returns are expected to lead
to a sharp increase in durum area (in
2015)." At the same time, the U.S.D.A.
said the effect on production of the acreage increase will be partly offset by an
expected return to trend line yields. Canadian growers were expected to seed a
larger area to durum as well. MBN

Bakers standard, Kansas City
Bulk, f.o.b. car, $ per cwt
$22.00
$20.00
$18.00

No. 1 hard amber durum

Bulk, f.o.b. car, $ per cwt
Kansas City
Bakers short patent
Bakers standard patent
Second clear
Third clear
Minneapolis
Spring short patent
Spring standard patent
High gluten
Whole wheat
Specialty whole wheat
Fancy spring clear
First spring clear
Rye, white
Chicago
Cracker
Fancy cake
New York
Winter/spring blend
Spring standard patent
High gluten
Fancy cake
Rye, white
Los Angeles
Bakers standard patent
Pastry

steady for hard red winter wheat, firm for
soft red winter wheat and mixed in the
case of hard red spring wheat last week.
Flour grind was about average for the
season at around 5½ days in most markets. Central states was near six days,
and the Northeast was about five. MBN

Track, Chicago
- Change from - Year $ per bu
Feb. 27
Feb. 27 Feb. 20 Feb. 13 ago Choice milling 13% 12.20
15.45
15.35
13.00
...

-
-
-
...

-0.50
-0.50
-
...

19.25 Track, Minneapolis
19.15 $ per bu
14.00 Choice milling 13% 12.50
...

17.00
16.90
19.90
16.90
17.25
16.75
16.65
22.60

-0.05
-0.05
-0.05
-0.05
-0.05
-0.05
-0.05
-

-0.60
-0.60
-0.60
-0.60
-0.60
-0.60
-0.60
-0.05

20.75
20.65
23.65
20.65
21.00
20.50
20.40
22.65

12.80
14.30

0.05
0.05

-0.70
-0.70

15.40
16.90

17.85
19.30
22.30
16.30
25.10

-
0.25
0.25
0.05
-

-0.50
-0.50
-0.50
-0.70
-0.05

21.65
23.85
26.85
18.90
25.15

20.35
20.40

-
-

-0.50
-0.50

24.55
24.40

Milling & Baking News

- Change from - Year
Feb. 20 Feb. 13 ago
-.30
-.30 10.50

$16.00
$14.00
F

A
Previous Year

N
Current Year

Spring standard, Minneapolis
-.30

-.30

9.50

Bulk, f.o.b. car, $ per cwt
$27.00

Semolina

$25.00

Bulk, f.o.b. Minneapolis, $ per cwt
- Change from -
Feb. 27 Feb. 20 Feb. 13
Semolina
30.30
-.75
-.80
Granulars
30.10
-.75
-.80
Flour
30.00
-.75
-.80
First clear
...
...
Second clear
...
...
Semolina - N.Y. 33.10
-.75
-.80

$23.00

Year
ago
24.80
24.60
24.50
17.55
13.50
27.50

Nationally advertised family ﬂour

$21.00
$19.00
$17.00
$15.00
F

A
Previous Year

N
Current Year

Cracker ﬂour, Chicago
Bulk, f.o.b. car, $ per cwt
$21.00

Dollars
Feb. 27
Family patent, 2-25s papers 24.12
4-10s
n.a.
8-5s
18.52
18-2s
20.64
Self-rising
n.a.

$19.00

Year ago
24.12
n.a.
18.52
20.64
n.a.f

$17.00
$15.00
$13.00
$11.00
$9.00
F

A
Previous Year

N
Current Year

bakingbusiness.com / world-grain.com

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Milling & Baking News - March 3, 2015

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