The total amount of wheat milled in the UK has increased by 2.2% for the crop-year to date, according to the latest national statistics released by Defra. The figure for the 43 weeks to 25 April 2009 stood at 5,032 thousand tonnes (tt), compared to 4,923tt for the comparable period last year. However, figures for the four weeks to 25 April, showed the total amount milled fell by 3.4% to 477tt compared with the figures for April 2008.

The total home-grown wheat milled in the UK increased by 2.8% to 4,058tt for the 43 weeks to 25 April 2009, but was down by 4.7% to 375.8tt for the four weeks to 25 April 2009. The total amount of imported wheat milled stood at 101tt, up 1.9% for the same four-week period.

In terms of flour production, the total amount stood at 4,007.4tt for the 43 weeks to 25 April 2009 - up 3.4%. The crop year-to-date figures show flour production for biscuit-making has increased by 10%, but cake flour and flour for food ingredients both fell, by 4.4% and 14.8% respectively.

Total production of bread flour stood at 2,309tt for the 43 weeks to 25 April 2009 - down 1.4% - 1,970tt of which was white flour (-1.0%), 93.9tt brown flour (-13.5%) and 245.1tt wholemeal (+1.4%).