The recent trend to develop regional supply chains for milling grains may help organic producers’ bottom lines. A large proportion of organic soft red winter wheat production is going into feed wheat, which is less lucrative than wheat sold to flour mills.

Many organic growers are willing to take some loss compared with prices for premium milling wheat, just to move crop volume, and keep wheat in their rotation. This is especially important for organic producers who rely on crop rotations as a primary instrument of mitigating pest pressure and breaking weed cycles. 

Prices for organic feed wheat are still better than for conventional wheat, and there are far less headaches with quality compared with marketing to flour mills. 

Bakers have been struggling to remain profitable as input costs have soared. Fastmarkets has heard reports from some market participants of an increased frequency…