The United States and Canada are the world's largest and second-largest wheat exporters. The balance was used domestically for feed and other purposes. The majority of Canadian wheat export sales are to markets in the Asia-Pacific region and in Latin America. U.S. millers import Canadian wheat with specific quality characteristics and blend it with U.S. wheat to achieve desired results. The U.S. imports a number of Canadian wheat classes for various end uses, including several milling wheat classes, durum wheat, and feed wheat.
Canadian wheat fills a market niche in the U.S., where it is typically blended with U.S. wheat.
Blending by U.S. millers adds value to both countries' wheats because it optimizes inherent qualities and enhances performance in some baked goods. Various properties of Canadian wheat enhance U.S. wheat consumption. For example, Canada Western Extra Strong wheat is uniquely suited as a blending wheat to increase gluten strength. It can be an especially effective complement to U.S. wheats in the production of flour used to serve the growing number of in-store bakeries and other frozen dough operations. Most Canadian wheat exported to the U.S. is shipped by rail directly to processors, with relatively little delivered to northern-tier elevators in Montana and North Dakota.