Miller Magazine Issue 110 / February 2019

71 INTERVIEW MILLER / FEBRUARY 2019 Climate change has a potential to affect your in- dustry in a negative way. Which measures do you take to mitigate this risk? We have not seen any losses of yield because of climate conditions yet. Our company can only tolerate this risk with wheat imports. From the national point of view, we should introduce a land reform, increase the agricultural incentives in order to support domestic production, subsidy wheat, ex- pand cultivation areas, and use proper and durable seeds. Dough shaping methods also change substantially accor- ding to climate conditions. We have a quality support unit of experts to help our customers. They analyze even the tiniest problem, diagnose it and try to solve it in the shortest possible time. The Turkish flour industry encountered some prob- lems stemming from the currency fluctuation. To what extent were you affected from this shock and what were the measures you took? We are exporting to more than 20 years. So we have a deep experience in procurement of wheat imports as well. From time to time, we balance our product quality with blending the do- mestic wheat and imported wheat of which quality parameters are set by the Turkish Grain Board. Each year, different qua- lity parameters come up at harvest seasons. We expected high quality until 1 month before 2018 harvest but climate conditi- ons in the harvest season was rainy and as a result, activity of enzymes increased. Wheat started to germinate and product quality went down. These negative developments made us use the imported wheat in order to produce quality flour. We use the wheat imported by the Turkish Grain Boards in order to meet our needs. In addition to these challenges, the sudden depreciation of the Turkish currency increased our costs signi- ficantly. We had to reflect this into flour prices. A number of competitors had to decrease quantity of sales and pulled out of the market. But we continued to sell products without com- promising the quality our customers need. Since domestic wheat production was not enough to meet the domestic demand, the government put impor- tant limitations against flour exports. In addition to this, the Turkish Grain Board imported wheat to meet the domestic need and sold it to the Turkish industrialists with a price that was below its cost. How do you source the wheat? We blend domestic wheat and the wheat imported by the Turkish Grain Board. The Board imports mainly from Russia, because of quality, price and advantages. It also imports wheat from Europe. We use imported wheat for producing the flour we export. The Turkish Grain Board will buy more than 1 million tons of wheat this year. Gluten-free flour is highly popular among consumers. What do you do in this segment? We have gluten-free flour, Gluten-Free Plus (fortified with various nutrients), flour with buckwheat for people following the celiac diet. We also have low-protein mix with starch for consumers following phenylketonuria diet. We have a strict production process for functional produ- cts. The production occurs in an isolated place from where the regular production goes on. Raw materials suppliers are chosen after gluten-free analysis and end product analysis and raw materials, supportive materials and packages are stored in a separate place. Personnel are trained for pro- duction of gluten-free food. Gluten analyses are made for each consignment during the production process and after packaging at accredited independent laboratories. No ship- ment is made before analysis results are received. When we started to produce gluten-free products in 2007, only imported products were available in the Turkish market. Their prices were so high. We offered those produ- cts with affordable prices because of the social responsibility perspective we have. We still adopt this approach for the customers that need to consume those kinds of products. According to the Istanbul Chamber of Industry, Eksun Food is among the 500 biggest industrial enterprises in Turkey. How does it motivate you to be in that list? Eksun Food is among the 500 biggest Turkish companies ac- cording to Istanbul Chamber of Industry thanks to its sales to domestic and international markets. Of course, we are proud to reap the fruits of our efforts and being able to make into the list motivates us for further efforts to achieve better results.