The dismal weather of 2012 which resulted in a poor wheat harvest with abysmal specific weights has prevented Premier Foods from maintaining their commitment to 100% British flour in their Hovis loaves.

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In a statement today they said "With the 2012 UK wheat harvest being the worst for more than 35 years, the Company is finding it increasingly difficult to maintain the high quality Bread standards that it requires. Therefore, it has been put in a challenging position and has had no option other than to use a percentage of imported wheat from the EU."

Farmers Loaf will stay British

Premier Foods will be introducing this across the Hovis range by the end of January with the exception of the Farmers Loaf range where it will be retaining our flour milled from 100% British wheat position.

Premier Foods told Farming Online this morning that they spent £1.3billion on UK direct and indirect suppliers and that they remain committed to procuring as much as possible from UK farmers and producers.

Sold Out

If you were thinking this might present an opportunity to sow those unfilled winter wheat fields this spring. The red wheat (spring) seed varieties used by Premier foods are unfortunately sold out with their suppliers.

NFU Comment

Andrew Watts, NFU Arable Crops Committee Chairman commented:

"It has been widely reported that 2012 Harvest was, for many of our members, the worst in living memory as   excessive rainfall severely affected both wheat quantity and quality. This directly impacted availability of high quality wheat from UK Farmers and we understand the need for Hovis to provide their Customers with consistently high quality bread and therefore source wheat from overseas supplement the UK shortage. We, the NFU, applaud the decision from Hovis to this sourcing policy over the last 5 years and endorse their commitment, quality dependent, to increase UK inclusion from harvest 2013."