Miller Magazine Issue: 148 April 2022

88 TECHNOLOGY PLATFORM MILLER / APRIL 2022 Yaşar Makina is known as a company that attaches importance to R&D studies and makes investments in this field. Could you tell us about your vision and work in R&D? We allocate a remarkable portion of our budget to R&D studies. Before we launch our machinery, lifetime tests and quality controls are carried out. The quality of the product to be processed is tested and standard or special processes based on the product are created to ensure that the final product can be processed in the most efficient way. We launch our products to the market by minimizing the risk of error after the tests we carry out within our own factory for one year. In this con- text, we have established a rice factory in İpsala, Edirne to conduct the performance, capacity, efficiency and durability tests of the machines in the actual product flow process. Can you tell us about your prospering projects that make you proud lately? Most recently, we have delivered a turnkey paddy and rice processing plant with a capacity of 20 tons/hour in Gönen, Balıkesir. As in the other plants we have commis- sioned, the satisfaction of our customers with this facility makes us feel the right pride. What are the features that differentiate you from your competitors in the market? We do not have a competitor as a manufacturer in the sector in Turkey. One of the companies operating in this sector puts the mark “Made in Turkey” on the products it imports from China. Another is a company that buys prod- ucts from abroad and markets them in Turkey. Therefore, we have no competitors. Which countries/regions do you regard as a potential new market for your company? Considering the rapid increase in demand for food with population and the rise of the middle class, we consider Southeast Asia and South Asia regions as potential mar- kets. In this context, I can list countries such as Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected your indus- try? What kind of change do you observe in the sector? The pandemic revealed the vital importance of agricul- tural production, grain industry, and food processing in- dustry. Demand for grain processing machines, paddy and rice processing machines that we produce has increased. During the pandemic, we witnessed that import-dependent countries started to stock grains to secure their food secu- rity and tried to diversify their food suppliers. While our sec- tor continues to gain more importance and expand; food safety, sustainability, and digitalization stand out as the sub- jects that the sector focuses on. Uzbekistan President Shavkat Mirziyoyev visited a turn- key rice mill plant installed by Yaşar Makina in Uzbekistan.