Trouble for mustard fans as drought cuts seeds used in Dijon

Foodies beware: The tiny brown seeds used to make high-end Dijon mustard are in short supply and getting more expensive.

Canada, the world’s biggest grower, has been ravaged by drought in its southern Prairie provinces, cutting the harvest of all mustard-crop varieties by half to the smallest in 11 years. Among the hardest hit are brown mustard seeds, boosting the ingredient cost of the spicy condiment favored by chefs as well as shoppers of brands like Grey Poupon.

While Americans eat a lot more yellow mustard on ball-park hot dogs or mixed into salad dressings, European countries are big consumers of the brown variety. Tighter supplies of seeds from Canada — also the world’s biggest mustard-seed exporter — could hurt food makers in the U.S., the top buyer, as well as major importers including Belgium, France, Japan and Senegal.

“There is no substitute for brown mustard in making Dijon,” said Walter Dyck, manager of the mustard seed division at Pleasant Prairie, Wis.-based Olds Products Co., which has been making mustard for more than a century and is the second-largest manufacturer in North America. “The price — it can move higher quite quickly when supplies are tight,” Dyck said by telephone from Lethbridge, Alberta. “Everybody that needs it has to have it.”

Some southern parts of Saskatchewan and Alberta got less than 60 percent of normal rainfall since the start of the growing season, according to the nation’s agriculture ministry. Farmers — including those in neighboring North Dakota in the U.S. — endured a “very dry and very hot” growing season that led to a significant decline in crop yields after the harvest began in August, Olds Products said in a Sept. 20 report.

The weather also reduced output of bigger crops including wheat and barley.