Arable farmers here are considering planting more milling wheat this autumn to help combat global shortages.
Federated Farmers arable chair Colin Hurst said New Zealand grew about a 100,000 tonnes of milling wheat and about 250,000 tonnes of feed wheat for stock. File photo Photo: Plant&Food Research New Zealand
Ukraine is major global producer of wheat - but following Russia's invasion, the Ukraine government banned the export of wheat to preserve its food stocks.
This has resulted in supply fears causing global wheat prices to rise sharply.
Federated Farmers arable chair Colin Hurst said New Zealand grew about 100,000 tonnes of milling wheat and about 250,000 tonnes of feed wheat for stock.
"So we're just looking into whether we could have a bit of a push to increase the area of milling wheat, we've started some initial talks with the government about this.
"It's just about understanding this worldwide food security crisis and whether there's an opportunity for New Zealand to assist with growing more grain."
Hurst said growers would be able to switch from growing feed grains to milling wheat.
"The problem with switching is we don't want to create shortages on the other side but the preference is to feed people rather than the livestock sector - these are things we need to work out."
About 70 percent of the wheat used in flour production in New Zealand is imported, mostly from Australia.
That was due to freight costs. Hurst said.
"Basically, we grow 100 percent of the milling wheat grown for the South Island, the main market is in North Island so we need to work on the infrastructure to transport it up there and efficient manner because It's cheaper to bring wheat from Australia to Auckland as opposed from Canterbury to Auckland, that's the problem."
The industry would discuss these issues with the government and try to find solutions before autumn crops were planted next month, he said.