Canada was and is a main grower of wheat, and large amounts were imported through Bristol before the 1960s.

Wheat came as a bulk cargo loose in the hold of the ship: with increasing mechanisation, fewer dockers could deal with larger cargoes. Here three dockers in the hold discharge a loose cargo of Canadian wheat using suction pipes from Avonmouth's Floating Elevator Alpha in 1921. The wheat would be sucked into a silo for storage.