A new branding visual will help celebrate Mid Canterbury farmers growing wheat to feed the nation.

A little logo will go a long way for local grain growers and suppliers.

Despite New Zealand producing 400,000 tonnes of wheat a year - a good chunk coming from Mid Canterbury - most of the products we consume are made with grain from Australia.

Levy group the Foundation for Arable Research (FAR) and food advocacy group Eat New Zealand hope to change that with a new consumer-first certification process.

They’ve created a “New Zealand Grown Grains” logo, which will appear on the packaging of wheat products that use, well, New Zealand-grown grains.

The design incorporates heads of wheat and a combine harvester, as a nod to the work grain growers undertake.

The initiative is part of a five-year long industry campaign to make the country self-sufficient in the growing of milling wheat used to make bread.

Lyndhurst farmer Roger Henderson said the announcement was great news for New Zealand, and specifically for Mid Canterbury.

“A lot of the grain that’s produced in New Zealand is grown in Mid Canterbury,” he said. “We grow pretty good varieties. We’ve grown milling wheat the last few years and we’ve never had anything fall out of speck.”

A lack of consumer awareness and high domestic shipping prices are the biggest barriers for local grain uptake. Consumer awareness is the easier of those two battlegrounds, he said.

“A certain amount of people in New Zealand, if they knew it was New Zealand grain, they’d buy it. Fellow farmer and wife Jude added her perspective: “We spend our money in town, so it’s great for the townspeople to purchase locally grown grain.”

Luisetti Seeds’ managing director Ed Luisetti said the news is “absolutely fantastic.” “It’s wonderful for the arable sector, farmers and the wider industry.” “[the public] now have the ability to choose, and therefore support, the New Zealand arable industry.”

He’s been part of the use-localwheat push over the last decade, spurred on by increasing world conflict and the country’s risk of food insecurity. “Most of the flour products, basically all the bread in the North Island, is made from Australian grain.

“We’d like New Zealand to be fully self-sustained in milling wheat.” He said the benefits will extend beyond the growers to local businesses and suppliers. “Of course, we’re heavily involved in the production of milling wheat seed.

“We hope that this will drive further milling wheat production. “Look out for the harvester,” he said to readers, “and be assured of top-quality New Zealand grain.” FAR general manager of business operations Ivan Lawrie said initial industry reactions to the branding had been good.

“Across the board, there’s a great deal of enthusiasm; from independent bakeries, foodies, a whole range of groups we haven’t engaged with traditionally,” he said of the trademark, which FARS owns, and which became available under license from July 1.

For growers to get certified, they simply have to prove they grow their grain in the country. It’s a bit different for millers, processors and end users.

“The only condition for that licence, initially, will be for the users to be auditable.” There will be some trial and error in the first few years of running the certification, he said, with the terms and conditions allowing a “small” tolerance of non-local grain percentages in some products.

“It’s taken a whole group of people to be involved alongside me to get to his point. “We are really, really happy, and we’ve got a lot of enthusiasm behind us."