Miller Magazine Issue: 124 April 2020

18 NEWS MILLER / APRIL 2020 The coronavirus lockdown has seen many panicked shoppers head to the supermarket in a rush to stock up on flour and pasta. In response to the surge in demand, millers ramped up produc- tion. The milling industry is working round the clock to meet demand at a sustained high level. Flour production ramps up as coronavirus drives demand Consumers across the world from London to Manila have queued at super markets in March to stock up on flour and pasta. Sales of flour and pasta are surging as people cope with the coronavirus pandemic by baking bread and other goods. Customers view flour and baking as a comfort in a time of crisis. It's also a shelf-stable item. As demand for the staple has surged, shortages of flour have been reported in grocery stores across the world. In many countries, the issue is not being able to mill enough flour, but rather logistics and capacity to pack enough of it into bags for supermarkets. In response to the surge in demand, millers ramped up production. They are trying to meet demand at a sustained high level. “An extended spike of demand hit the system hard and unexpectedly,” said Robb MacKie, president and CEO of the American Bakers Association. "We could have handled twice the normal demand. But five times the normal [demand] almost overnight — no one can prepare for that," he told to Business Insider. The unprecedented increase in demand for flour and pas- ta comes amid widespread quarantines and shelter-at-home orders due to the coronavirus pandemic. A rise in the num- ber of people who are home baking appears to be contribu- ting to the shortage of flour in supermarkets, although a lack of supply is not the problem. FLOUR DEMAND DOUBLED IN UK In the United Kingdom, The National Association of Bri- tish and Irish Millers (NABIM) said the industry is “working round the clock” seven days a week in an effort to double production, although it is still struggling to meet demand. The UK produces around 90,000 tonnes of standard flour each week, but only 12 of the 50 mills in the country are geared towards retail. Alex Waugh, director of NABIM, said packing lines are now running at maximum capacity, but this is still only pro- ducing enough for 15 percent of households to buy a bag of flour per week. And existing packing lines cannot easily be adapted to produce smaller retail bags, as the industry is geared towards distributing at scale. Mr. Waugh told the inews: “There isn't a problem with production. It's just that most goes to big food brands and bakeries. Bags are usually 25kg or 16kg. To pack for consumer retail requires a diffe- rent line, and people don't usually buy so much. We have plenty of flour, there's a lot of it about. It's just a question of scale. Normally people buy 2m bags of flour per week. That's doubled to 4m, and we're at the absolute max. Everyone's working overtime." GERMANY RUNS LOW ON PASTA The high demand ahead of anticipated lock-down and quarantine measures caused German retail sales in February to surge far beyond expectations. Demand for pasta in the country has increased sharply during the COVID-19 crisis, with giant discount retailer Aldi struggling to keep its shelves stocked. Aldi is so concerned about running out of pasta due to the pandemic that it is sending special freight trains to Italy to stock up. The first trains carried 200 tonnes of pasta from Italy to Nuremberg. FRENCH GRAIN INDUSTRY IN LOGISTICS SCRAMBLE France’s grain industry is scrambling to find enough trucks and staff to keep factories and ports running as panic buying of pasta and flour because of the coronavirus pandemic coincides with a surge in wheat exports. The French go- vernment’s designation of the food sector as a strategic priority has helped pasta manufactu- rers, flour mills and grain exporters get through the first week of lockdown in France, home to the biggest grain industry in Europe. But there are concerns the logistics required to keep the grain industry ticking over will become strai- ned as the crisis continues and other areas of the economy grind to a halt, industry groups say. “It’s requiring a great deal of acrobatics to supply factories and customers,” said Franco- is Cholat, president of SNIA, an association of manufacturers of livestock feed, which is made from cereals and oilseeds. “The logistics side is very complicated.” SNIA’s members have repor- COVID-19 ımpact on graın and mıllıng ındustry