Ardent Mills growing organic wheat capacity

Denver, Col. — Working towards a goal of doubling the number of organic wheat acres in the U.S. by 2019, Ardent Mills has expanded its organic wheat producer program to include a total of seven U.S. states (Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Michigan, Nebraska, Texas and Wyoming) and the province of Saskatchewan. The company will soon also have a total of eight organic-certified milling and packaging locations along with a storage facility.

“Since our initial announcement, we have continued to see growing demand from restaurants and food companies for organic wheat flour for use in fresh, packaged and menu recipes,” states Ardent Mills CEO Dan Dye in a company release.

Citing the Organic Trade Association’s (OTA) 2016 Organic Industry Survey, the release states that almost six per cent of total breads and grains sold in the U.S. are organic, and according to OTA data there was an 8.5 per cent increase in organic breads and grains sold in 2015 over 2014.

“By planning and launching regional and national products, we can deliver supply assurance and scalability,” said Ardent Mills director of specialty, risk management, Shrene White in the company release. “Since 2015, we’ve added organic durum, organic cracked wheat and organic spelt to our product mix, which also includes organic whole wheat flour, organic bread wheat flour, organic all-purpose wheat flour and organic pastry flour, various ancient grains and breads made at our Innovative Bakery Resources (IBR) facility.”