Milling & Baking News - December 15, 2009 - 33

Ingredient Week 

 Bakery Flour

Bookings of bakery flour continued to
expand modestly last week. Price changes were mixed with pan bread flour and
spring grades prices lower and soft flour
prices higher.
Individual pan bread bakers added
to their January-March flour coverage,
while some cookie-cracker and specialty
bakers booked soft flour through May.
Most of the week's activity involved
components instead of flat bookings.
Some bread bakers and soft flour users
covered the futures component of prospective flour bookings deep into 2010.
Millers indicated bread bakers also were
booking basis in Kansas City for the first
and second quarters of 2010. There wasn't
much fresh interest in covering millfeed.
Indications were bread flour coverage
for January-March was about 50%. Soft
flour buyers had more extensive coverage. Cookie-cracker and specialty bakers
typically book further forward than bread
bakers. This was even more the case this
year because of concerns about the supply of good quality soft wheat during the
current year and a smaller area planted to
soft wheat for harvest in 2010.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture on
Dec. 20 lowered its forecast for food use
of wheat in 2009-10 to 940 million bus
from 955 million bus as the November
projection. The latter number would have
constituted record high usage of wheat
for food. The current record food use of
wheat was 950 million bus in 2000-01 followed by 948 million bus in 2007-08.

Bakery flour

Southwest mills ran five to 5½ days
last week with Upper Midwest units at
five to six. Central states grind ranged
from five to seven days. Northeast and
Southeast mills ran close to five. West
coast flour grind was six days. MBN

 Family Flour

Sales of national and regional brands
of family flour picked up for a final push
in shipments for the winter holidays.
Carlot list prices were unchanged.
Product promotion turned more
aggressive than was the case before
Thanksgiving. In the Southeast, there
were instances of family flour being offered at three 5-lb bags for $7 and even
three 5-lb bags for $5. More common
were promotions offering two 5-lb bags
for $4. At one chain grocer, Gold Medal
was offered as low as $1.68 per bag, and
private label was priced at $1.25 per bag.
Shipments were expected to fall
sharply after this week as the holidays
approach.
It has been a good year for family flour
manufacturers. The decades-long trend
in the market was for steadily decreasing sales even in the face of a growing
population as home baking declined in
importance. It was expected 2009 would
buck that trend by recording at least a
small year-over-year increase. MBN



Semolina

The price of choice milling hard amber
durum in Minneapolis was unchanged
at $5.90 a bu. Quotes ranged from $5.75
up to $6.20, but there was no trading
on the spot market to confirm a value.
U.S. durum mills continued to operate
comfortably on pipelines of wheat purchased weeks ago. The Canadian Wheat
Board continued to offer milling durum
at the equivalent of $6.25 a bu.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture
on Dec. 10 lowered its forecast for the
carryover of durum on June 1, 2010, by
7 million bus, to 40 million bus. The reduction was the result of higher domestic and foreign demand for U.S. durum.
Domestic use of durum in the current
crop year was projected at 84 million
bus, up 2 million bus from the November forecast and up 3 million bus from
2008-09. Durum exports in 2009-10 were
projected at 50 million bus, up 5 million
from the November forecast and up 26
million bus from the previous year. Exports were projected to be the heaviest
since 56 million bus in 2000-01.
Durum mill grind was around five
days, off from the strong pace that prevailed since the beginning of the marketing year. Even with the recent slowdown, 2009 will be recorded as a buoyant year for the pasta industry. MBN

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

Bookings of semolina, granulars and
durum flour were limited last week.
Price changes were minor.

No. 1 hard amber durum

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

Track, Minneapolis
- Change from - Year
- Change from - Year $ per bu
Dec. 11 Dec. 4 Nov. 27 ago
Dec. 11 Dec. 4
Nov. 27 ago Choice milling 13% 5.90
-
-
9.75
Kansas City
cents per bu
Bakers short patent
13.70
-0.50
-1.15 14.65 Amber discount
10.00
-
-
10.00
Bakers standard patent 13.60
-0.50
-1.15 14.55 Durum discount
10@40
-
- 10@40
Second clear
12.50
-
- 13.00 Puffing premium
0
-
-
0
Third clear
5.80
-
-
5.80
Semolina
Minneapolis
Spring short patent
14.75
-0.25
-2.25 17.35 Bulk, f.o.b. Minneapolis, $ per cwt
- Change from - Year
Spring standard patent 14.65
-0.25
-2.25 17.25
Dec. 11
Dec. 4 Nov. 27
ago
High gluten
17.65
-0.25
-2.25 20.25
14.85
+.10
+.25
24.25
Whole wheat
14.65
-0.25
-2.25 17.25 Semolina
14.65
+.10
+.25
24.05
Specialty whole wheat 15.00
-0.25
-2.25 17.60 Granulars
14.55
+.10
+.25
23.95
Fancy spring clear
14.50
-0.25
-2.25 17.10 Flour
13.05
-
-
21.00
First spring clear
14.40
-0.25
-2.25 17.00 First clear
-
-
13.00
Rye, white
15.25
0.15
0.40 18.25 Second clear 11.00
Semolina - N.Y. 17.55
+.10
+.25
26.95
Chicago
Cracker
14.25
0.30
0.25 11.60
Nationally advertised family flour
Fancy cake
15.75
0.30
0.25 13.10
Dollars
New York
Dec. 11
Year ago
Winter/spring blend
16.10
-0.50
-1.15 17.05
Family patent, 2-25s papers 22.50
22.50
Spring standard patent 16.65
-0.45
-2.65 19.55
4-10s
18.25
18.24
High gluten
19.95
-0.15
-2.35 22.55
8-5s
18.40
18.40
Fancy cake
17.75
0.30
0.25 15.10
18-2s
21.76
21.76
Rye, white
17.75
0.15
0.40 20.75
Self-rising
+88c per bale +88c per bale
Los Angeles
Bakers standard patent 15.60
-1.00
-1.65 17.35
Pastry
16.80
0.25
-0.40 16.30
34 / December 15, 2009 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

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

Milling & Baking News - December 15, 2009

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