World Grain - August 2011 - 62

WHAT’S NEW?
14

BestFlours No. 13 / 11

Innovative ingredients for South America

All set to conquer Brazil’s markets
The food market of Brazil, the world’s ﬁfth-largest state, is changing rapidly. Mühlenchemie has responded to this enormous growth potential by establishing a branch of its own in São Paulo.

“Brazil has a strong, modern food industry. There is a great demand, in this country, for functional ingredients that permit the economical production of high-quality foods”; that is how Mühlenchemie’s managing director Lennart Kutschinski describes what led the company to establish an afﬁliate in São Paulo. With the new company under the name “Stern Ingredients Brazil”, Mühlenchemie is systematically continuing its strategy of global expansion. Brazil is its second subsidiary on the South American continent after Mexico. “A sound knowledge of the regional market is essential if you are to offer individual system solutions for the production of ﬂour and baked goods. That is why we have to be on the spot, in order to respond optimally to the increasing demands of the market and our customers’ individual wishes”, Kutschinski explains.

The company is managed by Leonardo Aguero, who looks back on more than ﬁfteen years of experience in the Brazilian and Latin American food industry. Fábio Groth Benfatto is part of the local team; he is a food technologist and highly experienced in the milling and baking industry. Stern Ingredients Brazil is to be enlarged rapidly under their management. For instance, it is planned to set up the company’s own production plant and establish an applications research and development department. Aguero and Benfatto have an excellent knowledge of the special features of the Brazilian market, that is currently undergoing fundamental changes. Whereas the consumption of basic foods such as maize, rice and beans is declining, there is a booming demand for high-quality, industrially processed foods like dairy products, pastries, snacks and toast bread.

Fast food and functional foods are popular too. The study “Brazil Food Trends 2020” prepared by the Industry Association of São Paulo (FIESP) in collaboration with the Institute of Food Technology (Ital) conﬁrms this development: besides the aspects of enjoyment, health and sustainability, convenience is identiﬁed as one of the most important trends – not least because of the increasing number of one-person households in the major cities. Within just a few years Brazil has made its way up the ladder to become the world’s eighth-largest economy. Besides huge raw material resources, a balanced economic policy and a low unemployment rate, the country’s demographic development has contributed to this meteoric upswing: the average age is 29. And this young, well educated section of the population is boosting the food market with enormous purchasing and consumer power. For the food industry with around 38,000 companies and 1.4 million employees, an annual growth rate of 4 to 4.5 percent is forecast. According to estimates by the industrial association Abia, the food industry achieved sales of 223.5 billion Brazilian real in 2009, 71.2% through the retail trade and 28.8% in food services (R$; about 102 billion EUR; 1 € = 2.20 R$).

Left to right: Torsten Wywiol, CEO Stern-Wywiol Gruppe; Fabio Groth Benfatto, Commercial Manager Stern Ingredients Brazil; Lennart Kutschinski, Managing Director of Mühlenchemie and Leonardo Aguero, General Director Stern Ingredients Brazil.

World Grain - August 2011

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of World Grain - August 2011