Milling News
The flour sack of the year comes from Indonesia
Crops of choice, waste reduction and better food safety by Chris Jackson, Export Manager UK TAG Here we are in another year, may I first wish all of our readers a Very Happy and Prosperous New Year 2016 was indeed a tumultuous year for the UK with voting to leave the EU. If our minister responsible for agriculture is to be believed in her New Year statement 2017, it should be good for farming here, for she promises to cut unnecessary red tape for our industry along with the staff needed to impose it and will allow our arable farmers to grow crops of their choice rather than being dictated to. Good news indeed as all of the farmers that I know have a great regard for their farms and the future of their farming business after all the land we till has been productive since farming began. That is not to say that in other parts of the world where livestock are not reared only arable, the same scenario applies. We must ensure that good productive land does not become dust bowls and therefore not available for food production. Whilst cutting red tape the Minister is absolutely committed to food safety A theme that all of the countries that I am privileged to visit aspire to and one that needs to be universally adopted. But of course making food production safe is not easy and entails a very heavy cost not only in making sure that food post farm-gate is processed with speed and efficiency to ensure flavour and safety but on farm to ensure that no toxic elements are used in production. This will often entail extra farm costs so that farmers will need to be adequately rewarded to make sure that the food they produce and livestock, crops, fruit and vegetables comply with the highest standards. As we go forward into another year, it is my hope that by using better genetics our production can increase to keep the increasing world population properly 38 | January 2017 - Milling and Grain
fed. In livestock and certainly in the rapidly developing world, milling technology and feed production is of paramount importance. Without this, the genetic potential of the animals cannot be fulfilled. Too often I have seen, quite understandably, because of capital costs both for storage to keep micro toxins out of the stored product and then food mixed by hand, that mixing is at best erratic both having negative effects on production. With a rapidly shrinking agricultural workforce, capital investment is essential especially amongst the small farmers who are least able to afford the investment. Therefore I believe to help these people properly, managed cooperatives need to be encouraged as I have seen taking place in Indonesia. This along with practical training, a theme that I often write about, is a must to enable farmers to increase their outputs and therefore their profitability and to keep rural economies alive and well. So for 2017 let us work together with our scientists to improve food production, cut waste between farm and consumers so that more people can have good and healthy diets. The theme for food production and safety is one that will be explored and demonstrated at the VIV Asia exhibition held in March in Bangkok where there will not only be seminars addressing aspects of production but over 400 companies from around the world demonstrating their products and the impacts that they can have improving production. I hope to see many of you there. As the years continue, one of the few certainties of living today is that wherever you are in the world the farming year seedtime and harvest goes on. Our challenge is to produce continually more from less and with innovative farmers success is assured. @AgrictecExports
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urrently, the most beautiful flour sack comes from Indonesia and shows an image of bamboo. Norman Loop, Regional Business Manager at Stern Ingredients Asia-Pacific, has presented the “Flour Sack Award 2015” to Indonesian flour mill Sriboga for its “Bamboo” motif on behalf of Mühlenchemie GmbH & Co. KG in Ahrensburg near Hamburg, Germany. With the award, which is decided by an independent jury, Mühlenchemie honours flour sack art as representations of regional cultures, as can be seen in the “MehlWelten Museum” in Wittenburg. Wheat and baked goods have a short history in the Asian island nation of Indonesia, where rice has traditionally been staple food number one. Thus, it is all the more remarkable that this year’s “Flour Sack Award” by Hamburg’s Mühlenchemie and the MehlWelten Museum went to the PT Sriboga Flour Mill for its “Bamboo” flour sack logo. The motif shows the growing importance of flour in Indonesia. “The special challenge for the miller was to find an entirely new visual language to show the benefits of flour. The images that symbolise the purity, strength and naturalness of wheat flour in the west, have different meanings in Indonesia. For example, the sun or an ear of grain triggers other associations here. So Sriboga chose bamboo as a symbol to translate the values ascribed to wheat into the language of the tropics,” explains Norman Loop, who as Regional Business Manager at Stern Ingredients Asia-Pacific, looks after Mühlenchemie’s customers in Indonesia. This year’s “flour sack of the year” will get a place of honour in Mühlenchemie’s “MehlWelten” like all of its predecessors. The museum near Hamburg, Germany holds the world’s largest collection of flour sacks with over 3,100 exhibits from over 130 countries.