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May 08, 2014

08/05/14: “Energy and environmental issues are the major trends shaping global grain milling industry”

Roger Gilber, Proprietor and Ms. Tuti Tan of Perendale Publishers Limited, the organizers of the 2nd Global Milling Conference, discuss technology, production and storage with Maria Krupa.


1. What are the major trends that are driving the Global Grain milling technologies? How does it go with buzz words such as sustainability, low energy consumption etc?
Roger: The major trend has to be energy and the environmental issues, also the efficiency in the feed and flour milling industry making the product more efficient. Coming to the energy consumption, we have cut down the water usage by 25%, and it takes lot of pressure off the feed prices and the production. Sustainability is a major issue. To grow more crops, to feed more people, we have to be more efficient with the crop production. Water usage is the biggest constraint in India, and we need to come out with more efficient ways of crop production to feed the growing population.
2. What is your view on the grain milling technologies currently in use in India? How does it compare with the global technologies?
Roger: Extrusion technology in the fish feed industry, the latest technology used in the world, is being widely adopted in India. This indicates that Indian millers are adopting latest technologies in general. India is the second largest fresh water fish producing country in the world. This technology could be used for other feed also, and there are a lot more other technologies which are coming into India. Having said thus, India is a market on its own, with 1.2 billion population. India manufactures products for its own use, and doesn’t need to necessarily export its machinery to other countries. But on the other side, the International companies are selling into Indian market, in terms of equipment and supplies.
3. Let’s now come to feed milling. India has a very vibrant poultry feed milling sector, where large scale co-exists with small scale units. Technologically, where do you place the Indian feed miller in the Global map? What could be improved?
Roger: India is the sixth largest compound feed manufacturer in the world, and the stress should be on the nutritional value of the feed, rather than the size of the production unit. When you are the sixth largest in the world, your responsibility would be to meet the value and the nutritional quality of the feed. India has come up a great way in achieving this during the last five to ten years.
4. On storage systems, Indian Government has taken it as a priority area, but not been very successful in putting Public Private Partnership (PPP) model. Do you know of any successful PPP model in grain storage in Silos?
Roger: Countries like France and UK do have policies where they involve Government in PPP. But I am not very much sure about it in India. May be these examples could be used in India. We lose tremendous amount of raw material due to the poor storage. We lose 20% in the storage line. Storage is very important area. We had three to four presentations on storage from cooling to drying at the conference. Bag storage has to be maintained correctly as the grains once stored, should be the same, when we remove it after six months. Cold storage gives you flexibility. The Indian Government is doing a great job in providing storage facilities, as India is one of the largest producers of the rice and wheat.
5. Could you brief us about the Perendale publishers? How you are helping the Indian Feed Milling Industry?
Ms. Tuti Tan: Perendale Publishers is helping out the Feed industry, especially in countries like India, China and other south Asian countries. We commit ourselves in distributing the knowledge of feed industry through our magazine to India, Africa and other countries. We do conduct seminars, conferences to meet the global leaders in the feed industry, and this information is passed through our magazines and newsletters.

Read the full E-Magazine HERE


The Global Miller
This blog is maintained by The Global Miller staff and is supported by the magazine GFMT which is published by Perendale Publishers Limited.

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