Montana-made gluten-free flour now shipping; growers co-op expanding

Montina, a gluten-free flour milled from a native grass, should have greatly expanded sales in 2003, say those involved in its development and marketing.

Carol Flaherty MSU News

Sales are expected to rise to between 50,000 and 100,000 pounds in 2003, says Tim Anderson, an MSU researcher employed through a commercialization grant. He said firms in Seattle and Edmonton, Canada are either incorporating Montina in their products or using Montina in product development. There are two Montina products on the market: a pure Montina flour and an all-purpose gluten-free baking mix.

"The demand far exceeds the supply at this point," says Anderson. "We anticipate sales going well over a million pounds a year." Two distinguishing characteristics of Montina, in addition to it being gluten-free, are that it is a high-fiber, high-protein product.

The sales are through the Ronan-based Amazing Grains Grower Cooperative, which has three employees and a web site: http://www.montina.com. The cooperative is composed mainly of Montana growers, though there are a few growers from other states, according to Anderson. The co-op now has 39 members and plans to make a stock offering for new members before the end of 2002, said Anderson.

Montina is milled and packaged at Mission Mountain Market, a partially grant-supported business incubator in Ronan.

The uses for alternative agricultural products are limited only by our imaginations, says Dave Sands, an MSU researcher who has spurred the development of Montina. Sands expects demand to explode for nontraditional crops when a "proteomic chip" that reads our DNA becomes widely commercialized in three to five years. It will tell an individual so much about his or her current physical condition that it will create markets for agricultural products that support the specific needs of individuals. In fact, Sands thinks that MSU’s curriculum should expand to include a minor in genetic counseling, because the demand to understand the implications of data coming from the DNA chip will be so great.

The money will be made not so much on the chip as on the "pharm foods" that meet specific needs, says Sands.

"We’re in the game. We know how to do this. We need to do it with another 20 products," says Sands.

Alice Pilgeram, a researcher in Sands’ lab, says that the Indian rice grass on which Montina is based is suitable for growing almost anywhere in Montana.

It is a perennial crop that does not have to be planted every year as growers do with most currently marketed cereal grains. Yields are minimal the first year and then are "normal" at perhaps 400 pounds per acre for the life of the stand. A dry land Indian rice grass stand is productive for about five years before it should be rejuvenated by replanting. Irrigated production has higher annual yields, but the stand typically lasts four years, said Anderson.

According to the Montina web site, the cooperative has a technician who can help new growers get started. Dry land and irrigated members are expected to realize better returns than with small grains.

However, Sands cautioned growers that the Montina market will be similar to a pharmaceutical market to the extent that harvested Montina must be uncontaminated by even a single kernel of wheat or barley. Any contamination of a gluten-free product could kill demand for it.

Interested growers should contact Amazing Grains General Manager Bob Warren at [email protected] while people interested in Montina should contact Dan Phipps at [email protected] or either at 406-676-3536.

Dave Sands (406) 994-5151, Tim Anderson (406) 995-3322

http://www.montana.edu/commserv/csnews/nwview.php?article=615