Miller Magazine Issue 146 February 2022

75 TECHNOLOGY PLATFORM MILLER / FEBRUARY 2022 growing market for the production of non-animal-based proteins and, therefore, of the milling technologies and processing systems required to be able to cope with this demand. How has the COVID-19 pandemic impacted your in- dustry? What have been the recent changes and trends in your business since the pandemic began? LC: There have been impacts in different areas of the business and the way we operate in the market. Steady demand and high prices for grain and for grain-based products: The food and agricultural industry continue to expand and did not suffer significantly from lockdowns and travel restrictions imposed globally during the pandemic. Our plants are usually financed by large pri- vate and public international entities, which allowed us to keep the existing contracts in place. So that at the end we have not experienced a drop in business accordingly and could generally maintain the turnover of previous years. Raw material shortage and supply chain delays: The biggest impact has been on the shortage of raw materials, particularly high tensile steel sheets required for manufac- turing our basic components (silos, conveyors, structures etc.). We have been facing the general lack of reliability in the delivery time of sub-suppliers, which has also affected our delivery time. Only the combined efforts of all compa- nies of the group in the procurement allowed to overcome the most critical situation. MC: Lockdown and smart-working: Given the fact that our company is based in several locations, we are used to collaborate within international teams remotely since time immemorial. Still, this trend has been further magnified by several consequent lockdowns and imposed travel restric- tions in the last year. We are now fully used to work from ev- erywhere and we see that our customers do the same. Not only sales, marketing, engineering, and project manage- ment activities, but also remote commissioning has been made possible by modern IT-tools and ways of communi- cation. Still, meeting in person after many weeks or even months felt particularly good this summer and we look for- ward to meeting our employees and customers in person this spring with less restrictions and more direct dialogue. SUPPORT IN FINANCING OF THE PROJECT Which countries/regions do you see as a potential new market for your company? Could you tell us about your company’s future goals and expectations? LC: The Ukrainian and Russian markets are still relevant for us with growing production and potential, especially for export, even if national regulations and political tensions may reduce this in the future. The Middle East will remain very attractive, given the increase of population and their need for grain products paired with a reduced local pro- duction, mainly driven by drought due to climate change. We do also believe that both South America and Sub-equatorial Africa have the potential to increase their storage capacity, especially considering that still a large quantity of harvested grain is stored in open space and subject to damage, especially considering the increasing instability of the weather in the last years. A more balanced investment in both harvesting and storing equipment may be the key to better secure crops in these areas. Is there anything else you would like to add? MC: Large industrial plants require in most cases a sig- nificant investment, which is often provided by institutional investors. This is why the definition and finalization of the financing of the project is always a delicate and sometimes difficult process in the whole project execution. Being a German-based company, we can support our customers in this aspect as well by checking the potential applicability of an export credit insurance by German Euler Hermes for their project. Thank you for your interest in CESCO!