The Italian milling industry is a cutting edge reality

In Europe, and today perhaps in the World as well, “eating Italian” has taken on the meaning of eating well, not just in terms of type of food but also as a way of sitting at the table to be stirred by food, and share these feelings with others. In this sense, being invited to lunch or dinner is a time for sharing a lifestyle which goes far beyond sharing food. When one thinks of Italian food, one’s mind fills with memories of bread, pizza, pasta, slow-leavened products such as Christmas-time Pandoro and Panettone and Easter-time Colomba; in other words, food products that are symbols of “Made in Italy”, obtained from the transformation of wheat.

An overview at the sector

by Italmopa

Italy boasts an ancient milling tradition of excellence. Although the milling process, based only on processes of a physical nature, has basically been unchanged for over a century, thanks to the extensive use of automation the new century’s Italian milling industry is a technologically advanced sector, abreast of complex challenges throughout the food supply chain. A sector that holds the acknowledged leadership in the European Union, by processing over 11 million tonnes of wheat each year to produce soft wheat flour and durum wheat semolina of well-established quality and absolute safety in terms of hygiene and health. The Italian milling sector is certainly facing a number of challenges, first and foremost, although not solely, concerning proper and consistent procurement of high-quality raw materials. It should be noted that national production covers 65% of the durum wheat milling sector and 40% of the soft wheat milling sector. The production of highquality flour and semolina therefore stems from the ability of Italian entrepreneurs to skilfully select and mix national and foreign raw materials and process them according to original recipes and technologies.

Critical issues

On the demand side, the main critical issue appears to be attributable to stagnation or a slight reduction in domestic consumption, especially of bread, fortunately offset by a positive trend in exports. The challenges certainly appear to be complex as well as numerous, but Italian millers are fully capable of tackling them, both thanks to their skills and to the sector’s long and glorious history. Being a miller means being passionate about one’s enterprise, developing a product, watching it grow, placing it on the market. A whole set of actions that make up a challenging yet thrilling activity.

Italmopa - the Italian Industrial Millers Association - recently conducted an in-depth study into the structure of the Italian milling industry. The results reveal a detailed picture of the current structure of the durum and soft wheat milling industry in Italy, but also assesses the evolution of the sector over the last years. According to the study, there are, in Italy, 293 milling plants with a capacity exceeding 10 tonnes/24 hours. The total milling capacity adds up to 50,418 tonnes/24 hours, of which 29,355 tonnes/24 hours are from soft wheat mills and 21,063 tonnes/24 hours are from durum wheat mills. The amount of soft wheat and durum wheat annually processed by the milling industry is equal to, according to the results of the study, 11,200,000 tonnes.

The size of the milling plants

Another significant factor is the size of the milling plants, which have an average milling capacity of 156 tonnes/24 hours for soft wheat mills and 207 tonnes/24 hours for the durum wheat milling industry. Looking at the compartments on their own, we find that the evolution of the Italian soft wheat milling industry has seen a progressive decrease (albeit slow, in light of the challenges that the industry has had to face over the past few years) when it comes to the number of active plants. There are 190 soft wheat milling plants currently in Italy. A number significantly down on surveys conducted in 2000, 2010 and 2015.

The milling plants able to process soft wheat grain into flour numbered 356 in 2000, 259 in 2010 and 233 in 2015. That means that 166 soft wheat mills have closed down in about 20 years, a reduction of 47% compared to numbers in 2000. The current milling capacity of 29,355 is up compared to 2015, when it was at 28,169 tonnes/24 hours. The Emilia Romagna Region with 5,828 tonnes/24 hours represents 19.9% of the domestic milling capacity, more than Veneto (4,967 tonnes/24 hours or 16.9% of domestic production) and

Italian Entrepreneurs Skilfully Select And Mix National And Foreign Raw Materials

Lombardia (3,843 tonnes/24 hours or 13.1% of domestic production).

The comparison between the number of mills and the total transformation capacity is especially interesting: restricting ourselves to the most representative regions, the average daily capacity is less than 100 tonnes in

Piedmont, Marches, Abruzzi, Campania and Sicily in part because in these regions there is a high percentage of mills with a transformation capacity under 50 tonnes/24 hours. Only 48 of the 190 Italian soft wheat mills (or 25%), nationally speaking, have a production capacity in excess of 200 tonnes/24 hours, and 84 mills have a capacity over 100 tonnes/24 hours. On the other hand, the number of mills with a transformation capacity of less than 50 tonnes/24 hours - some 33% of the total number of soft wheat mills in Italy - is particularly significant when you consider the reduction recorded over the past few years (in 2000, they represented 47% of the total number of milling plants).

Production volumes

A close examination of production volumes, about 4,000,000 tonnes of flour in Italy, shows that average production volume per mill is about 21,050 tonnes a year, a level that is significantly lower than the average production volumes of mills in the United Kingdom, Germany and Spain but higher than that of France and Poland. With regards to the durum wheat milling industry, the information gathered confirms that, here too, there has been a consistent reduction in the number of active plants in Italy: there are significantly fewer durum wheat mills today than there were according to the surveys done in 2000, 2010 and 2015. Specifically, compared to general data gathered, in 2000 there were 187 plants. In 2022, the durum wheat mills active in Italy amounted to 102 plants. When looking at individual regions, Sicily ranks at the top of the list in Italy with 37 milling plants, more than Apulia (22) and Basilicata (7). Yet is it important to highlight that, in 2000, there were 98 plants in Sicily, 22 in Apulia and 13 in Basilicata.

The total milling capacity in 2022 was 21,063 tonnes/24 hours, slightly higher than the amount registered in 2010 (20,375 tonnes/24 hours), but less than that recorded in 2000 (22,250 tonnes/24 hours). Apulia, with 7,086 tonnes/24 hours, represents about 33.6% of the total domestic capacity, more than Campania (with 2,084 tonnes/24 hours or 9.9% of domestic capacity) and Sicily (with 1,814 tonnes/24 hours or about 8.6% of domestic capacity). If we take a closer look at the details of the actual sizes of the plants surveyed, 31 plants out of the 102 in Italy have a capacity greater than 200 tonnes/24 hours (that is, about 30%). Nonetheless, they represent about 81% of the total transformation capacity. Most of the active mills fall into the 10 to 50 tonnes/24 hours category, with 49 of them producing less than 50 tonnes/24 hours. Italy is therefore characterized by a high number of small-sized mills, most of them in Sicily, a number which has, nonetheless, suffered a significant reduction over recent years and bears witness to a decline in the industry which has affected, first and foremost, this type of business.