World Grain - November 2008 - 59

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FEATURE: GLOBAL FLOUR PRODUCTION INCREASES

duction reached 3.5 million.
The only other major producing nation in Africa, for which
data were available, was South Africa. That country turned out
2,217,000 tonnes of wheat flour in 2006, up 3% from the prior
year and 9.4% above a decade earlier.
Looking to Asia, Japan was the leading nation for which
output was reported. Japan's output in 2006 totaled 4,616,000
tonnes, unchanged from the preceding year and little different
from the aggregate a decade earlier.
India, where food consumption of wheat ranks second to
China, accounted for only 2,164,000 tonnes of wheat flour produced by its commercial mills in 2006. That was down 13%
from the prior year and was off more than 50% from a decade
earlier, probably the result of a realignment in the industry.
Mills in Australia produced 2,016,000 tonnes in 2006, down
3% from 2005, but up nearly 11% from a decade earlier.
Brazil's output of 7,362,000 tonnes in 2006 was up 3.6% from
7,126,000 in 2005 and was 17% ahead of production a decade
earlier in 1996. Argentina in 2006 produced 3,794,000 tonnes
of flour, up 2% from the preceding year and 15% ahead of output in 1996. Output by Chile totaled 1,298,000 tonnes, about
the same as in 2005 but 16% ahead of 1,120,000 in 1996.
In addition to assembling statistics on flour production
around the world, the IGC estimates food consumption of
wheat in a number of countries, including some of the major
flour producers where flour output data are not available. The
Council cautions about converting its wheat food statistics into
missing flour output data, and points out that in many countries much flour and similar products are made by home grinding or production in small mills not reporting to the central
government for the purposes of reporting flour production.
For instance, in the case of India, where commercial flour
output in 2006 was reported at 2,164,000 tonnes, consumption of wheat for food in the 2006-07 crop year was estimated
at 67.1 million tonnes. The latter would indicate actual flour
production many times the reported commercial figure.
Similarly in Ukraine, the flour output of 2,282,000 tonnes
seems far short of estimated consumption of wheat for food
of 6.6 million tonnes. Here, the indication was that the Soviet-era milling industry has disaggregated into a number of
smaller, independent mills not covered by official flour production statistics.
In the case of China, the IGC estimated its consumption
of wheat for food in 2006-07 at 91 million tonnes, compared
with 92.9 million in the previous season. Food use in Russia,
another country without current flour output data, was estimated at 16.6 million tonnes, the same as in 2005-06.
In contrast with the apparent large discrepancy between
flour production and consumption of wheat as food in many
nations, the IGC data for the United States shows flour proWG
duction and wheat food use in close balance.
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