CUSTOMER TALK 4 BestFlours No. 13 / 11 From Germany to Mexico: Siegfried Oliver Haslinger manages the wheat mill Molino San Pedro in Tlaxcoapan. Molino San Pedro: A little mill but way ahead in quality Mühlenchemie exports its products to over 120 countries and maintains close partnerships with more than 1,000 mills around the globe. In our new “Customer Talk” series we let millers in all the continents have their say and give them an opportunity to report on their daily work and their experience with handling flour improvers. We are starting with Siegfried Oliver Haslinger – a German master miller who emigrated twelve years ago and now manages the Molino San Pedro mill in Mexico. Mr. Haslinger, you are the production manager of the Mexican Millco Group. What does your work consist of? Millco is a family-owned group of companies. It includes a semolina mill, a pasta factory and a wheat flour mill. As a technical consultant I’m responsible for all three facilities, but at present my work is mostly at the Molino San Pedro wheat mill here in Tlaxcoapan. Can you tell us something about the Mexican market? How is the Molino San Pedro positioned in that environment? A lot of things are changing in Mexico. Wheat used to be subsidized by the government – those were golden times for the whole milling industry, of course. But since this funding was abolished there has been fierce price fighting that has resulted in massive predatory competi- tion. We have a few big mills with about 1400 tonnes that would like to dominate the market. With only 200 tonnes our mill is one of the smaller businesses – but we have no trouble asserting ourselves because we believe in quality. How is your clientele made up? 75 percent of our production is more or less for our own use. The uncle of the head of our firm owns nearly 100 bakeries in Mexico City – and we produce the flour for them. But we also supply some selected, good customers who appreciate the high quality we offer. What products are made in Tlaxcoapan? We have a twofold strategy. On the one hand we produce a Type 550 flour for bread and rolls, and on the other we make very light-coloured wheat flour for tortillas.