Canada's first hard white spring wheat variety is generating some promising feedback from key customers in the Asian market.

One of the most recent examples comes from the Seberang Flour Mill in Malaysia, which has performed end-use quality tests on the variety Snowbird, showcasing the significant opportunity for Canada to capture greater market share in the Pacific Rim.

Snowbird is the first variety of the new Canada Western Hard White (CWHW) wheat class. Testing at the Seberang Flour Mill indicated the variety is a well-suited grade of wheat for the production of wonton noodles, soda crackers and white bread in the region. Dr. Soon Bin Neoh, Managing Director of the mill, recently discussed the results on a visit to Saskatoon during Crop Production Week. He presented along with Dr. Pierre Hucl of the University of Saskatchewan's Crop Development Centre, who discussed white wheat breeding progress.

"There's still a lot of breeding work and market testing to be done to firmly establish this class, but it's nice to see we're at a point where we're getting some encouraging signals from potential customers," says Hucl, a wheat breeder, who noted much of the breeding effort has been supported in part by farmers through the Wheat Check-off Fund, administered by Western Grains Research Foundation (WGRF).

Wonton noodles, crackers and white bread are the three major markets for flour in the region. According to Seberang's results, Australian white wheat still rates arguably the best for making alkaline noodles, steamed breads and soft dough biscuits, but overall Canada's new line of wheat poses a growing long-term threat to Australia's dominance of wheat exports to the region.

"As Dr. Neoh said, we are beginning a new journey with this new category, but it is a long journey and we must prove ourselves," says Graham Worden of the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) market development division. This means proving not only the ability of this variety and others to meet the target quality, he says, "but also to meet the need for consistent, uniform production and capture the interest and commitment of buyers, as well as become a reliable supplier."

More information on the potential of hard white wheat is available in the February edition of Western Grains Research Magazine, now on the Western Grains Research Foundation (WGRF) Web site, www.westerngrains.com. Western Canadian wheat and barley growers are major investors in breeding research through the Wheat and Barley Check-off Funds, administered by WGRF. The Research Magazine offers "Ideas and issues for farmer research investors."

Over the past decade, Australia's wheat exports to Malaysia have hovered around the 650,000 tonnes mark, while Canada's have typically been around 200,000 tonnes and the United State's around 75,000 tonnes. Austalia's advantages are its long-standing dominance in hard white spring wheat and its close proximity to the region.

Recognizing this, along with the fact that there's virtually no downside to white wheat, Canada and the U.S. have shifted their wheat breeding more strongly into white-seeded wheat.

Though the roots of white wheat development are deep in Canada, including development of the Canada Prairie Spring White (CPSW) class, CWHW is a new white seeded incarnation best suited as a potential "universal wheat" for Asian noodle, bread and biscuit production.

It is modeled closely on Canada Western Red Spring (CWRS) wheat, but developed with white seed, which offers preferred colour and higher flour extract. CWHW has slightly lower protein than CWRS, which gives it greater end-use flexibility.

The February edition of Western Grains Research Magazine, at www.westerngrains.com, also includes articles on which wheat and barley varieties farmers are growing, factors behind seed costs and a discussion about on-farm research with a WGRF farmer Board member.