World Grain - October 2014 - 6

FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Path to improving
flour output data

hile it might be a stretch to cite a
single statistic as being more important than any other in measuring the
well being of an industry like wheat milling,
or even grain processing, the significance of
wheat flour production data for this purpose
may hardly be overstated. The wheat flour
output number for many nations provides as
good, if not better, gauge of the diet level of
its citizens as any other. For milling and related industries, flour output figures have the
essential role of providing a detailed picture
of the actual performance of the industry, as
well as revealing details about the domestic
food supply, the well-being of farmers, and,
of course, standing as the guidepost for individual enterprises to determine how they
are doing in relation to the national number.
For the global audience focused on wheat
milling as the business that operates in all
countries of size and in many smaller nations where it stands at the head of food
manufacturing, the best source is the annual
compilation provided by the International
Grains Council (IGC). Almost from the
Council's start in the immediate post-World
War II years, it has assembled national flour
production statistics. With this data, information is provided about wheat supply and
demand in countries where it had never been
known before. Using export and import data,
domestic supply calculations are possible
that could be converted into per capita flour
consumption as perhaps the most reliable
way of measuring the caloric and nutritional
adequacy of each country's food supply.
For a time, the IGC, known as the International Wheat Council in its early years,
was bold enough and confident enough in
its information gathering to come up with
a figure representing worldwide flour production. Here was a number that not only
described by its annual changes the status
of this most basic food industry, but also
revealed how individual nations were doing
compared with other countries and regions
of the world. Alas, estimating those global
numbers came to a halt in recent decades
when nations that once provided flour output

data stopped doing that, in part for political
battling, in part for economic secrecy and
in part inexplicably. It seems almost impossible to explain why countries like Australia,
Norway and the Philippines have missing
figures. China's and Iran's reasons for making flour output a secret are less a problem.
At one time concern might have ruled that
the United States was not going to produce
numbers that meet IGC standards. Suddenly,
in 2011, the Commerce Department agency
that had compiled flour output data from U.S.
mills stopped doing this for budgetary reasons.
To meet the urgent needs of milling companies
for data against which individual company
performance could be assessed, the organization of American millers, the North American
Millers' Association (NAMA), stepped up and
hired a data company to do the work. NAMA
has carried out this project by gathering data
voluntarily. The NAMA figures deserve great
praise for filling an information gap that might
have caused many severe problems.
Yet, even with the association's quarterly
reports, a level of unease has ruled about
data without the government's imprimatur.
For that reason, enthusiasm greeted the decision announced this summer by the U.S.
Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service (ERS) that it would assemble
flour output reports beginning in 2015. Further, the ERS will duplicate the former government reports to provide information on
wheat grind, millfeed production and related
data missing from NAMA compilations.
Hardly anything could symbolize with
greater meaning the importance of flour
production data than this U.S. government
action. It does not seem unrealistic to hope
that this step spurs those countries that either don't compile the information or have
elected to keep their flour output a secret to
join the nations that proudly cite this statistic
as evidence of their commitment to providing invaluable information for their citizens
as well as for the world.
Morton I. Sosland
Editor-in-chief

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World Grain - October 2014

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