Annually there are dozens of industry events in the world devoted to the market of grain products of processing. But there are several of them that can be called TOP-events that determine the global direction of industry development. Such event regards to the annual exhibitions held by the most influential industry organization IAOM (International Association of Operative Millers). This year the 123d IOAM was held in “golden” state Colorado, Denver. The industry union “Millers of Ukraine” with financial and operative support by FAO and EBRD was an exhibitor and participant of the exhibition and held several busy days in sunny Denver.
An International Association of Operative Millers (IAOM) founded in 1896 is a global organization, that unites the millers and processors of grain giving them the possibility for education and development of the industry. The organization undertakes numerous training courses and conferences, exhibitions, runs certifications and grants industrial rewards, publishes educational literature. Today, association has 14 offices around the world promoting the values and ideas of IAOM to the difference parts of the world. The main annual event of the association is usually taken in different cities of the US. It is not just an exhibition, it is also conference, training courses, competitions and charitable initiatives.
But before the delegation of the Ukrainian millers took part in exhibition, there was two-day business-tour on a trading network and distributors of food products in Chicago. The members of the delegation visited more than 10 retail and wholesale shops, including Fresh Farm, Costco, PeterFreshMarket, the giant of the organic trade that is part of the Amazon Whole Foods Market, and others, and also several Ukrainian and Russian shops.
Herewith, there were very thorough negotiations with the sales managers of the grocery products of these trade network, and also there was an assessment of the shops’ product range in question.
In should be noted that almost all of the networks with the European products or ethnic units, have Ukrainian products in different product groups (dairy, confectionary products), including the groats of TM “Skvyryanka” and the products of the Group of Companies “Khlibodar”.
Unfortunately, we haven’t seen the milling products of the domestic enterprises apart from the Ukrainian shops, whereas Russian, Polish and Lithuanian products were widely presented. And the assortment of the local producers of flour is very wide. Herewith we should note that in the US you can buy the 1-2 kilo pack of flour or 22 kilo pack of flour and the demand of the population on this product is very high, particularly on flour of its own but not the bake mix.
Very wide range of the products is presented by the company Ardent Mills, which has more than 40 enterprises around the US, and the plants produce more than 250 varieties of flour. So we were able to attend the plant on our last day of business tour.
More detailed information about the condition of entering the North American market, certifications and the work with the chains will be presented in Autumn at the conference “Grain Processors Forum – 2019”.
But now let us return to the exhibition/conference, that started its work on April 17 and offered to the participants four topical parts – the quality of the products, technologies, human resources and production control. The leading speaker of the conference was the international expert of milling industry Alan Tracy (Tracy Consulting).
At the exhibition there were more than 100 exhibitors from the US, Canada, Turkey, Germany, China, Switzerland, Italy, Ukraine, Denmark. Among the companies-exhibitors the vast majority was presented by the suppliers of milling equipment, grain storages, engineering companies, service providers for mills (automatization, security, fumigation), company-producers of product quality assessment equipment, etc.
The stand «Millers of Ukraine» offered to exhibition participants the information booklets about Ukraine as an exporter of flour and grain by-products. Also the participants could see samples of the Ukrainian products of the main companies exporters of four, groats, bakery products («Stolychnyi mlyn», Skvyrsryi grain processing factory, «Zernari», «Hlibodar», «Rivneboroshno», «Bilotserkivskhlibproduct»). Many participants of the exhibition know the leading position of Ukraine as an exporter of grain, but they were surprised to see the immersive growth rate of the export of flour and products of processing. The buyers from Central and Sought America (Guatemala, Costa-Rica, Ecuador, Columbia) were especially interested in the possibilities to purchase Ukrainian products.
On the last day of the exhibition on May 18 the director of «Millers of Ukraine» Rodion Rybchynskyi had a meeting with the Executive Vice President of IAOM Melinda Farris during which they discussed the possibility for cooperation between the two organizations and prospects of the joint project in Black Sea region.
It should be noted that the organizers of the event apart from the main program of the exhibition and the conference provided the active cultural activities, including far-out dinner for the exhibitors, that fostered productive communication and establishing business contacts.
Rodion Rybchinskiy, Director of the Association "Millers of Ukraine”
