Australian soft wheat for Asian markets
Author: Ken Quail and Siem Siah, (Australian Export Grains Innovation Centre) | Date: 21 Feb 2022
Key messages
- There is a significant market for soft wheat in Southeast Asia with an estimated demand for over two million tonnes by 2030.
- Low protein Australian noodle wheat provides a short-term supply opportunity to meet Asian market demand for soft wheat.
- Western Australia is well placed to meet the long-term demand for soft wheat in Asia. This market will provide growers with a new, low-protein crop option.
Aims
To establish a new profitable soft wheat export market for Australian growers.
Introduction
AEGIC has identified increasing demand for soft wheat from Southeast Asian flour millers with anticipated demand for over 2.4mmt by 2030. This market has expressed interest in supply of Australian soft wheat. Australia has no suitable soft wheat varieties currently available, however breeders are now working on this opportunity. Development of new soft wheat exports from Western Australia will diversify supply and address Asian consumer demand for soft wheat products. Low protein soft wheat attracts higher prices, and regions within WA are well suited to the production of low protein wheat. Production of low protein soft wheat with reduced input costs and competitive yields will increase cropping options for WA grain growers.
Australian wheat breeding companies have responded to this opportunity by commencing soft wheat breeding programs targeting production in WA. This project will support these breeding programs to ensure market quality targets are met and to gain market acceptance for Australian soft wheat. The project will address key three quality attributes prioritised by Asian millers – solvent retention capacity (SRC), cookie performance and flour milling efficiency.
Method
The project links wheat breeders and growers with Asian flour millers. Trials of new wheat lines grown at scale allow technical sample exchange with Asian mills to evaluate end product performance. AEGIC has established a technical grain quality component to engage customer flour mills. This includes a study of the relationship between SRC test and biscuit quality. It is expected that this will assist breeders and the classification of export soft wheat.
The most relevant component of this project to report in the current GRDC Update is the work done to evaluate the use of low protein Australian Noodle Wheat (ANW) as a substitute for USA Soft White Wheat (SWW). Results reported below refer to this component of the project. Work to evaluate new soft lines from Australian wheat breeders is ongoing and will be reported in the future.
Results
The 2021 harvest of SWW was limited by severe drought in the Pacific Northwest of the USA. The impact of the drought was to reduce supply and increase prices. Within the soft wheat project, the opportunity to use low protein ANW as a soft wheat substitute was investigated. A comparison of wheat and flour characteristics between samples collected across multiple seasons of SWW, ANW and ASW were carried out.
Cookie spread and stack height
Figure 1 shows cookie spread and stack height made from SWW, ANW2 and ASW. The cookie spread of ANW2 tended to be slightly lower but not significantly different from SWW. The cookie spread of both SWW and ANW2 was higher than ASW. The cookie stack height of all samples was not significantly different.
Figure 2 illustrates cookies made from SWW, ANW2 and ASW. The cookie spread of SWW and ANW2 was greater than ASW.
Solvent Retention Capacity (SRC)
The SRC test has been widely promoted in Asia to predict soft wheat biscuit performance. It is a diagnostic tool used to predict flour functionality, particularly for soft wheat. It assesses the solubility of wheat flour in selected solvents including water, sucrose, lactic acid and sodium bicarbonate solutions. The SRC test has now been widely adopted by large biscuit manufacturers, and flour millers in Southeast Asia view the test as important.
The SRC values of SWW, ANW2 and ASW are shown in Figure 3. Low protein ANW gave similar results to SWW in three out of the four SRC tests (water, sodium carbonate and lactic acid).
The SRC sodium carbonate of ANW2 was not significantly different from SWW, and they were both lower than ASW. SRC sodium carbonate is reported to relate to starch damage. This agreed with starch damage results measured by enzymatic analysis as discussed below.
The SRC water of ANW2 was similar to SWW, and they were both lower than ASW. The SRC water is thought to relate to all flour components, indicating that ANW2 is like SWW, and they are different to ASW.
The SRC sucrose of SWW was lower than ANW2 and ASW, possibly indicating the pentosans in the US sample were lower. The SRC lactic acid of SWW was lower than ASW and not significantly different from ANW2, indicating the gluten quality of ASW was different to SWW but somewhat close to that of ANW2.
Grain properties
The grain protein, moisture, test weight, thousand kernel weight, particle size index (PSI) and falling number of SWW, ANW2 and ASW are presented in Table 1. None of the quality parameters were significantly different from each other, except for PSI. PSI is a measure of grain hardness, and the low value for of ASW indicates hard grained wheat, while the higher values for SWW and ANW2 reflect their soft wheat type.
Flour properties
The flour protein content, moisture, starch damage, stability time, extensibility, maximum resistance (Rmax) and peak viscosity of SWW, ANW2 and ASW are presented in Table 2. Flour protein content, extensibility and Rmax were similar for each wheat type.
The starch damage of ASW was higher than both ANW2 and SWW. The stability time of ASW was higher than SWW but not significantly different to ANW2. Peak viscosity of ANW2 were higher than both SWW and ASW.
The overall results suggest that flour properties of ANW2 were closer to soft-grained SWW than hard-grained ASW. Nevertheless, the pasting property of ANW2 was different to the other two wheat types but this does not appear to have adverse impact on cookie performance.
Milling performance
Milling performance of ANW2 and SWW was similar (Figure 5).
Conclusion
Drought on the west coast of the USA has left Southeast Asian flour millers seeking alternatives to SWW for cookie applications. Low protein Australian Noodle Wheat (ANW2) provides an immediate solution, presenting a new, short-term market opportunity for Australian growers.
Work on the development of soft wheat lines that provide a viable option for WA growers and meet market requirements continues as a long-term supply opportunity.
Acknowledgments
The researchers would like to acknowledge DPIRD for direct investment in this project and acknowledge the following contributions:
- groIQ for organisation and coordination of field trials
- Supply of samples by LongReach Plant Breeders. Intergrain, AGT, Stirlings to Coast Farmers and Cooperative Bulk Handling Group
- Indonesian flour mills for their cooperation in testing and sample exchange
- AEGIC analytical support, Soft Wheat team including Chris Whiteway and Sabrina Lim and Dr Ian Wesley statistical support.
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