The Jamaica Flour Mills (JFM) is mixing a new blend of wheat used for grinding baking flour which may see the commodity's price being stabilised for at least the next few weeks.

Derrick Nembhard, managing director of JFM, said the company is moving away from solely using the expensive premium brand spring wheat for making baking flour.

With the use of spring wheat, baking flour would be sold at $3,500 per 45-kilogram bag.

Since last month, the company has experimented with the hard red winter wheat, a cheaper brand, combined with the spring wheat that may see baking flour reduced to $2,700 for the similar weight.

"The market will not see a massive decrease but maintain a price that bakeries can afford," said Nembhard.

Gerry Chambers, president of the Bakers Association of Jamaica, said if bakeries continued to use the spring wheat blend of flour, the price of bread would have increased to about $200 for a two-pound size.

Currently, a two-pound loaf of hard dough bread sells for approximately $140.

Nembhard said samples of the new blend of flour were distributed to bakeries in March for feedback to be received from industry players.

Same taste

Chambers said this new blend of flour would not change the taste of bread.

"Hard red winter wheat has less protein than the spring wheat, hence they have to be mixed, as hard dough bread needs a significant percentage of protein for it to rise during the making process," said Chambers.

Wheat prices have increased steadily worldwide over the past year due to recent environmental, agricultural and economic trends. The global phenomenon towards biofuels, or ethanol production, has also taken acreage away from wheat production in favour of corn.

shelly-ann.thompson@gleanerjm.com