10 years ago, the Gaucho wheat market worked differently. The quality of what was produced in the State was underutilized by the mills, which meant that imports, mainly from Argentina, were the way out. Currently, the scenario is different because the quality of wheat produced in Rio Grande do Sul has changed the market dynamics and, today, there is a significant evolution in what is delivered to the mills. In addition to better materials, this advance helped to enhance and make national wheat viable and opened up space for the chain to be better remunerated in Brazil, especially in a high dollar scenario, which makes importing wheat to supply the domestic market expensive.
Moinho Vacaria, located in the city of the same name in Rio Grande do Sul, has been grinding wheat for over 50 years. Marta Accorsi is Moinho's controller and remembers what the market was like in the past. “Back then, Gaucho wheat did not have the characteristics to serve the bakery market, that is, it did not meet the industry’s demand. We needed Argentine wheat to grind. Until 10, 12 years ago, there was no quality wheat here,” she recalls. The Commercial Director of Moinho Viviana, in Camaquã/RS, Ronei Olson, agrees that there has been a big change from what it was to what it is today. “We have created a very large dependence on imported wheat because the bakery segment is very delicate and demanding.” The evolution of Gaucho wheat in recent years has been great, surpassing materials that come from abroad. “Perhaps in the past the quality of Argentine grain was superior, today I no longer see it that way”, assesses Ronei.
Some characteristics are essential for the product to be considered suitable for different purposes. In mills, gluten strength (W), stability (Est) and lighter color (L*) are some of the main points that need to be present in the flour to produce good bread. For Marta, today the wheat from Rio Grande do Sul has exceptional quality. “In recent years, with the advancement of genetics, what they have done is a fantastic thing. This quality profile started to change 10, 12 years ago. In the last 4, 5 years even more significantly. Every year there is a new cultivar, an improvement over the previous year,” she reports. Marta explains that this evolution is expressed in the numbers at Moinho Vacaria. “A decade ago, 80% of production came from wheat imports. This harvest, the origin was practically reversed,” she reports.
In addition to the mill, the wheat produced today in Rio Grande do Sul has opened new business opportunities and improved marketing dynamics. One of the difficulties that existed was the uncertainty that the promised quality would be the same at the time of sale. Alessandro Braucks, from Tenente Portela/RS, has worked with wheat for 20 years. He is a farmer and cereal grower and understands the impacts of evolution on marketing. “Before, we worked with materials that had good production ceilings, but industrial quality was always unknown. You were going to sell the wheat and you were always very sensitive about industrial quality”, he comments. According to him, today, the materials have a much higher industrial quality, with stability in indexes, greater tolerance to climate change, including especially a higher level of resistance to pre-harvest germination, a sensitive issue for wheat cultivation in southern Brazil . “In addition to gluten strength and stability, we have wheat with a general quality that generates much more security for those who are producing”, he assesses.
Among the cultivars sown this year on his property, Alessandro chose TBIO Audaz, an early cycle material that meets the agronomic characteristics he seeks. “It has a plant architecture that allows a good quality of fungal treatment, good management in the crop. In addition to an excellent response to nitrogen fertilization, it is a material that is showing great productive potential and within an appropriate cycle. In terms of industrial quality, I have no doubt that it is a product that is widely accepted by mills, as it has different characteristics”, he states. TBIO Audaz is one of the cultivars also remembered by Marta as one of the protagonists in this scenario of evolution of wheat in Rio Grande do Sul. “Audaz has been surprising. It’s fantastic, it’s strong, it responds very well to grinding, it has incredible stability,” he comments. TBIO Audaz was the most sown wheat in Rio Grande do Sul in 2020 and with the support of farmers and mills, it should continue to have great space in Brazilian crops.
Much of the progress noted by Marta and Ronei in the materials they receive at the mills involves genetic improvement. The cultivars developed in recent years bring more security to the producer and the rest of the chain. Kênia Meneguzzi, industrial quality supervisor at Biotrigo Genética, explains that there is a concern in identifying market needs and from this creating cultivars with specific aptitude for each demand within the breeding program. “Today we have special projects that aim to segregate the delivery of cultivars with very different specifications, as is the case with whitening wheat for baking and biscuits. From this, we were able to identify internally which cultivars serve each market and then create specific projects to meet these demands, seeking to preserve the identity of what is different,” she explains.
The demand for specific wheats for each purpose, such as baking, whitening, among others, has always existed. What did not exist was the distinction and programs aimed at segregation to support the producer's marketing and also the use of these lots by the mill. According to Kênia, the objective of this effort is to structure and organize so that it is easier for the producer to sell it and use it for the mill. “And so the industry obtains specific flours to produce for consumers who are increasingly demanding. We know that segregation is a challenge and for those cultivars that are not in special projects, we are seeking to evolve by creating a more homogeneous group when it comes to baking”, she explains.
In 2015, an experimental bakery was implemented at Biotrigo, where tests are carried out to identify the performance of cultivars. “We did trials many years before wheat strains became commercial. We send samples of our cultivars every year that can be launched so that the mills can know in advance”, explains Kênia. There are more than 80 Brazilian mills that receive these samples, which makes it possible to launch more assertive cultivars, meeting market demand.
“We received very positive feedback that the demand for imported wheat has been decreasing increasingly due to the quality of the batches of wheat produced here in the State. There was this change in the scenario, greater opening up of marketing because quality is increasingly focused on meeting the demands of mills and consumers and, in parallel, also meeting the agronomic demands of farmers”, he concludes.
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