BUSINESS: 532 PRACTICES
Thrakis Mills I. Ouzounopoulos S.A. is one of the leading flour mills in Greece for more than a century. The company is focused on producing premium flour based on high quality wheat from the rich land of Thrace.
Read more: myloi-thrakis.gr
The main aim of the action was to upgrade the milling wheat crops in the area of Thrace.
Producers of milling wheat in Thrace.
Ongoing: 2010 - 2017.
During the last three decades agricultural policy, established by the European Union, subsidized durum wheat in order to strengthen the Italian pasta industry. As a consequence, that led to the marginalization of soft (milling) wheat crop in the region of Western (Greek) Thrace. It’s cultivation was competitive to that of the durum wheat so farmers turned to the latter. Milling wheat crops not only fell sharply but also their quality was poor because farmers were not following the appropriate farming practices. For all these years, Greece has been deficient in quantities of milling wheat but, also, in wheat of high quality. That is the reason Greece was forced to meet its needs with imported wheat. In 2010, the company "Thrace Mills" decides to launch a major effort to return in Thrace a mass production of milling wheat of high quality and, therefore, of added value.
The first step was to ensure that the product will have good agronomic characteristics in the region of Thrace that is good yields and good baking quality. The investigation focused on finding:
Experimental crops were, therefore, performed at the farm of the University where 22 seeds with different characteristics and origin were examined, of high tech but, also, of native varieties. The first phase was completed with the selection of the best varieties in accordance with agronomic and quality criteria set. The company "Thrace Mills" examined the bakery features according to the expertise of the flour and the University the agronomic features and together they chose the most suitable varieties. During the next year (2011), simultaneously with the experimentation within the farm of the University, experiments were launched in real conditions with 19 selected farmers in 1,500 acres for the selected varieties. A "cultivation calendar" was designed jointly by “Thrace Mills” and the University in which the most important aspects of cultivation were recorded and a program of visits per crop was established to control the farmers’ correct practices. There was a continuous contact between “Thrace Mills” agriculturists and the growers, on the one hand, and the University, on the other, with the latter providing technical and scientific support of the company to monitor the crop. By the end of the growing year, the varieties which were recorded as to their agronomic data in real and ideal (University Farm) conditions were collected separately by Thrace Mills and were grinded, for the first time on an industrial scale, and tested for their bakery features. So, the second phase of the varieties selection was completed where the best (varieties) that were selected in the first phase were assorted following the same selection process.
East Macedonia – Thrace region.
Thrace Mills worked together with the Department of Agricultural Development, Democritus University of Thrace and the local producers in the region of Thrace in an integrated effort.
Thrace Mills: employ 6 persons in the quality control Department, 4 in the agriculturist Dept, as well as persons who work for the production relevant to the receipt of the wheat and the grinding, the transport Dept. at a number of about 20 as a whole.
The University: employs about 5 students and 2 professors while, the producers involved in the program this year are more than 600, with 18 brokers/agriculturist centre that act as intermediates between Thrakis Mills and farmers.
