BRUSSELS, BELGIUM — The General Assembly of European Flour Millers unanimously elected its new president, Francesco Vacondio, chief executive officer of Modena, Italy-based Molini Industriali, for a two-year term (2022-24) during the assembly’s May 27 meeting in Brussels, Belgium.
Gary Sharkey of Hovis, who has ended his term as president, and Jan Cordesmeyer of Hemelter Mühle, have been elected vice presidents, while Bernard Valluis was chosen honorary president.
In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has shown the strategic role millers play in providing local high-quality primary food, the European Flour Millers will continue to be actively engaged in the transition toward enhanced sustainability. This will require not only addressing supply-chain decarbonization, but also surging production costs that include wheat and electricity, while at the same time ensuring a continuous supply to the food and animal feed markets.
“I look forward to engaging on the announced initiatives linked to the European Green Deal and to supporting the policy process together with the teams of European Flour Millers’ experts,” Vacondio said. “We are conscious of the responsibility of the flour millers to keep bread on the table, and we will play our role in ensuring the implications of certain policy choices for our supply chain in Europe are understood and taken into account.”
With some 47 million tonnes of soft wheat, rye and oats processed each year and more than 3,800 companies employing 45,000 people, the European flour milling industry is the largest single food user of EU domestic wheat, rye and oats. Today, its European association is composed of 28 national associations.
