Miller Magazine Issue: 147 March 2022

102 INTERVIEW MILLER / march 2022 World Flour Day is celebrated around the world ev- ery year, on 20 March. This date is firmly established on the commemorative day calendar, and is observed with many activities. Although flour is one of humani- ty’s oldest staple foods, World Flour Day is still young. It was created on the initiative of one Carsten Blum. We asked this family man and Head of Marketing of Mühlenchemie about what motivated him to launch this commemorative day. You had the idea for World Flour Day. How did that come about? Carsten Blum: I enjoy holidays. They are occasions for getting together with family and friends, and celebrating and appreciating special things. Since I love flour, I asked myself whether there is a day when the world’s most im- portant staple food is celebrated. There turned out not to be one. I researched further and found an organisation in the US that officially registers such commemorative days. Since the organisation gets 20,000+ proposals a year and only implements 8 to 10 of them, a few conver- sations were necessary. Ultimately, I managed to con- vince the committee to add the 20th of March to their calendar as the official World Flour Day, and record our unique flour museum as the initiator. Flour is one of the oldest and most important staple foods in the world. Why wasn’t there a day to cele- brate it much earlier? I was surprised too. Flour really does have a special significance for mankind. Not just culturally, but also in view of the rapidly increasing global population. The millers and the flour processing industry have a great responsibility to feed humanity now and going forward. I am all the happier that we now have an official holiday on which we can show our appreciation for flour, and for the people who work daily to take grain from field to final product. How has the industry responded to your efforts? The acceptance of the holiday has been overwhelm- ing! Right from the first year, many well-known compa- nies in the industry supported our commitment and cel- ebrated the day with employees and customers. Now we’re looking forward to the third World Flour Day, and I can say that the holiday has become established. We “Flour really does have a special significance for mankind. Not just culturally, but also in view of the rapidly increasing global population. The millers and the flour processing industry have a great responsibility to feed humanity now and going forward. I am all the happier that we now have an official holiday on which we can show our apprecia- tion for flour, and for the people who work daily to take grain from field to final product.” ‘World Flour Day expresses our deep engagement’ Carsten Blum Head of Marketing Mühlenchemie