Milling & Baking News - December 16, 2008 - 36

Ingredient Week

Bakery Flour

Bookings of bakery flour were limited
last week. Prices advanced.
The markets for all grades of flour
quieted following a flurry of activity
that broke out Friday of the previous
week. Bakers at that time filled gaps in
December coverage and added to their
ownership of January-March needs. In
instances, soft flour coverage into AprilMay was taken.
There was no follow-through of this
business last week. Rising wheat futures
prices were a consideration. Cash wheat
markets were firm for hard red winter
wheat and soft red winter wheat and irregular in the case of spring wheat. Millfeed prices were stronger but many bakers priced that component of prospective flour bookings for the first quarter
a while back.
Most bakers were comfortable with
coverage extending solidly through
December and well into the first quarter. It was estimated January-March
coverage was at about 50% of the potential with some estimates as low as
40% and others as high as 60%. Cookiecracker and specialty bakers held more
extensive flour coverage than bread
bakers as is typical.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture
lowered its forecast for food use of wheat
in 2008-09 by 10 million bus, to 950 million bus, because of a higher flour extraction rate seen in 2008 crop wheat and
slower mill grind than earlier forecast.
Mill grind was 6 days in the Southwest

Bakery flour

and Central states, while units in the Upper Midwest and Northeast ran five to
5½ days. Southeast mills ran 5½ days.
West coast mills ran six to 6½ days. MBN

Family Flour

Sales of national and regional brands
of family flour were seasonally sluggish last week. Carlot list prices were
unchanged, but indications were individual brands may lower list prices in
mid-January.
Family flour unit sales in November
were 2.38% below those of a year earlier,
according to Information Resources, Inc.,
a Chicago-based market research firm.
At the same time, dollar sales in November were up 32.7% from 2007. Unit
sales during the 52 weeks ended Nov. 30
were up 0.5% from the same span a year
earlier, and dollar sales were up 28.6%.
The market data did not include sales at
Wal-Mart and club stores. The data were
at wide variance to those produced by
another research service that acknowledged a computing error. While even a
fractional gain in unit sales was notable,
it was nowhere near as impressive as the
erroneous data suggested.
Shipments were expected to slow with
supply for Christmas already on grocers'
shelves or in warehouses. Shipments
typically drop sharply after the holidays
and remain slow for several weeks. MBN

Semolina

week. Price changes were minor.
The price of choice milling hard amber durum in Minneapolis held steady
at $9.75 a bu. Stability in the cash durum market contrasted with wide price
swings within an overall downward
trend that has become the norm in other classes of wheat and in agricultural
commodities generally. A historically
wide spread between durum and spring
wheat prices continued to encourage
substitution of spring wheat for durum
for manufacturing pasta not requiring
100% durum semolina. It was suggested
durum would have to maintain a $2-a-bu
premium to 14% spring wheat to encourage an increase in durum planting in the
spring; the spread last week was about
$2.70 a bu in favor of durum.
Pasta makers added incrementally to
January-March ownership. Coverage
was estimated at 40% to 45% of the potential. There were no bookings beyond
March.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture
on Dec. 11 projected the 2009 durum
carryover at 21 million bus, down 3 million bus from the November forecast but
up 13 million bus from 8 million bus in
2008. Projected imports in 2008-09 were
reduced 5 million bus and domestic use
was reduced 3 million bus. MBN

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

Bookings of semolina, granulars
and durum flour were steady last

No. 1 hard amber durum

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

Track, Minneapolis
- Change from - Year
- Change from - Year $ per bu
Dec. 12 Dec. 5 Nov. 28 ago
Dec. 12 Dec. 5
Nov. 28 ago Choice milling 13% 9.75
-
-
19.50
Kansas City
cents per bu
Bakers short patent
14.65
0.20
-0.55 24.25 Amber discount
10.00
-
-
10.00
Bakers standard patent 14.55
0.20
-0.55 24.15 Durum discount
10@40
-
- 10@40
Second clear
13.00
-
- 12.00 Puffing premium
0
-
-
0
Third clear
5.80
-
-
5.80
Semolina
Minneapolis
Spring short patent
17.35
0.05
0.60 26.05 Bulk, f.o.b. Minneapolis, $ per cwt
- Change from - Year
Spring standard patent 17.25
0.05
0.60 25.95
Dec. 12
Dec. 5 Nov. 28
ago
High gluten
20.25
0.05
0.60 26.95
24.25
-.10
+.45
48.40
Whole wheat
17.25
0.05
0.60 25.95 Semolina
24.05
-.10
+.45
48.20
Specialty whole wheat 17.60
0.05
0.60 26.30 Granulars
23.95
-.10
+.45
48.10
Fancy spring clear
17.10
0.05
0.60 25.80 Flour
21.00
-
-
36.30
First spring clear
17.00
0.05
0.60 25.70 First clear
-
-
10.25
Rye, white
18.25
-0.20
0.70 17.95 Second clear 13.00
Semolina - N.Y. 26.95
+.20
+.75
50.80
Chicago
Cracker
11.60
0.75
- 23.10
Nationally advertised family flour
Fancy cake
13.10
0.75
- 24.60
Dollars
New York
Dec. 12
Year ago
Winter/spring blend
17.05
0.20
-0.55 26.65
Family patent, 2-25s papers 22.50
16.05
Spring standard patent 19.55
-0.05
0.05 28.10
4-10s
18.24
13.78
High gluten
22.55
-0.05
0.05 29.10
8-5s
18.40
13.96
Fancy cake
15.10
0.75
- 26.60
18-2s
21.76
15.66
Rye, white
20.75
-0.20
0.70 20.45
Self-rising
+88c per bale +88c per bale
Los Angeles
Bakers standard patent 17.35
0.50
-1.10 26.65
Pastry
16.30
-0.65
-1.25 31.25
36 / December 16, 2008

Milling & Baking News

Spring standard, Minneapolis
Bulk, f.o.b. car, $ per cwt

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

bakingbusiness.com / world-grain.com

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Milling & Baking News - December 16, 2008

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