Miller Magazine Issue: 123 March 2020

16 NEWS MILLER / MARCH 2020 Igor N. Sviridenko Vice President The Russian Union of Flour Mills and Cereal Plants The past and future of the Russian milling industry Guest Author “Over the past 20 years, the Russian Federation has taken a worthy place in the agricultural export market and become the world’s number one wheat exporter. However, in terms of state support, the main focus is on grain exports, not on processed products. Over the past decade, Russian annual flour exports have fluctuated at no more than 200-250 thousand tons, although production capacities allow increasing the volume to at least 2-3 million tons.” The Russian flour milling industry has been developing over the past hundred years and has undergone a number of changes by the second decade of the 21st century. Du- ring the Soviet period, especially in the '60s-'80s of the last century, state programs were developed and adopted at the government level, pursuant to which the production of their own high-performance and flour-grinding equip- ment, contemporary for that period, was created. Almost all enterprises in the industry were either re-equipped or re-created. At the same time, special attention was paid both to the enlargement of production (in the main mega- cities of the country - Moscow, Leningrad, now Saint-Pe- tersburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Novosibirsk), and bringing production closer to consumers. In accordance with the task set for the industry by the country's leadership, each regional center should have had at least one flour mill. By 1991, these tasks were practically resolved. There were 358 mills in the RSFSR, which made it possible to produce up to 20 million tons of flour per year. At the same time, old mills that do not meet modern requirements were al- most eliminated. Production was carried out at the maximum technical capacity. In respect of flour-grinding equipment, almost 100 percent capacity utilization rate was achieved, pro- duction and marketing of products were carried out in ac-