Exporter of the week: Many of the fortified wheat flour cookies eaten in Latin America are produced in Colombia
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In Colombia, the milling industry imports the best quality wheat for milling and fortification processes. The result is a fortified wheat flour, with the best nutritional quality, which is used in the production of breads, pastas, cookies, pastry products and many more.
The consumption of wheat flour in our country is very important, with 1.36 million tons produced annually, entirely in the 40 production plants in Colombia, located in Bogota, Cauca, the Atlantic Coast, Cundinamarca, Nariño, Risaralda, Santander and Valle del Cauca.
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The value chain links the bakery, confectionery, biscuit and pasta sectors, which generate more than 120,000 direct and indirect jobs.
In 2022, the milling industry exported 67.7 thousand tons of wheat-derived foods, with sales of USD $148.4 million.
In view of the important production of the Colombian milling industry, we talked to Pilar Ortiz, executive director of the Colombian Wheat Millers Federation (Fedemol), which has been a member of Andi since 2007.
Below, we transcribe part of the interview, which you can watch in full in the video located at the top of the page.
Although wheat is a key cereal for food security in our country, why do we only plant 3,680 hectares of wheat?
The reason for this is because we do not have the geographical conditions, that is, Colombia has neither the land nor the climate for planting wheat, because this is a cereal of very cold climates.
When you look at the globe, you can see that the main wheat growers are those that are close to the poles, for example, Canada and the USA, and to the south we have Argentina as the main growers.
So, those of us near the Equator are not wheat growers. We grow other cereals such as rice and corn.
How much wheat is imported each year to supply the needs of the Colombian industry and from which countries does this wheat come to us?
In Colombia we are importing approximately 2.1 million tons of wheat to supply the national demand. All that wheat is for human consumption.
Where do we get that wheat from?
We import that wheat mainly from Canada. Currently, imports from this country represent 52%, followed by the United States, with 23%, and then Argentina, from where we bring 15% of imports.
The rest of the wheat comes from different countries around the world, depending on where it is available.
In the 1960s, Colombia produced much more wheat than it does today. What was the reason for this reduction and the impact it has had on the country’s economy?
Wheat is a cereal that needs a lot of cold. In the past, Colombia had some important wheat hectares, because at that time there was no opening to trade, so we had to grow the wheat we needed to make the bread that Colombians consumed.
But, unfortunately, the great efforts made by the national government, in the 50’s, to have seeds with better technologies for higher productivity failed.
The production per hectare was never important, that is why it was one of the main products that were negotiated with the free trade agreements (FTA), to have it with 0% tariff and guarantee that bread for Colombians.
All the wheat consumed in the country or processed is imported and we are producing good wheat flour with that wheat.
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What is the quality of this flour?
In Colombia we have the best wheat flour. Last year the company Bloomberg made a study at Latin American level that showed that Colombia produces the best wheat flour versus the best price, comparing it with countries that also have wheat crops such as Argentina. In other words, we have the cheapest price per kilo of wheat flour in the region.
With a plus that does not happen in all countries, in Colombia all wheat flour is fortified, that is to say that a vitamin premix of vitamin B1 B2 B3, iron, niacin and folic acid is added to comply with a decree issued by the national government in 1996.
So, how much does this fortified flour contribute to food security in Colombia?
It contributes a lot. As I was telling you, we mainly import wheat from Canada, which has a higher protein level. This Canadian cereal is not only fiber, but it contains protein and, additionally, the fortification included in Colombia.
This means that every time a Colombian takes a loaf of bread, a plate of pasta or a cookie to his mouth, he is guaranteeing micronutrients that are extremely important for human beings, so that they can carry out their daily activities.
How is Colombia in the production of flours other than wheat? How much has the consumption of other flours increased?
In Colombia we have a high consumption of wheat flour and corn flour. The other flours are used specifically in very gourmet market niches for restaurants or to make products for new culinary developments.
In Fedemol, we have only wheat flour millers and its production is made in the mills of Colombia.
Currently, in the different regions of the country, we have 40 production plants where the milling and processing is done so that we can have that wheat flour which is the main input of bakeries.
With the 2.1 million tons of wheat we import, 1.3 million tons of fortified flour are being produced in Colombia. Of this, 70% goes to our neighborhood bakeries, which are our main customers.
How much employment is the milling industry generating?
21 wheat milling companies are affiliated to Fedemol and generate 120 thousand jobs in the food chain derived from wheat.
Currently, in Colombia, there are 22,533 neighborhood bakeries and, from the milling industry, we supply them with their main raw material, fortified wheat flour.
What is the nutritional contribution of the milling sector to Colombians?
Wheat flour is the main ingredient of three basic foods for Colombians: bread, pasta and cookies. Bread and pasta are in the family basket.
Bread will always be the cheapest food that Colombians can consume, thus having a higher nutritional value compared to other foods.
Why is fortification important?
Because Colombians, especially those who have fewer resources to feed themselves, cannot get all the micronutrients they need from the food they eat every day. So, with wheat flour we must guarantee food fortification.
For example, iron is very important to prevent anemia, and folic acid helps a lot to prevent babies from being born with a very serious disease called spina bifida, so it is important that pregnant women consume folic acid.
Colombia has a high percentage of women or girls, because they are still girls, with teenage pregnancies, and normally these pregnancies are not planned. These girls do not have the time to go to a gynecologist to start taking folic acid.
That is why food fortification is so important to prevent spina bifida in these girls or adolescents who become pregnant and consume pasta or cookies with folic acid. That is why Colombia has a very low level of this disease.
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What is the role played by this sector of the fortified wheat flour industry in the typical Colombian gastronomy?
With the arrival of the Spaniards, bread has always been present in Colombian gastronomy, in the food table.
Bread has been the cheapest food in Colombia, that is why we hear the news about the price of bread. Bread has many headlines, and we are always wondering why there is no more $100 bread.
Colombians always have in their mind to buy daily that bread that they eat for breakfast.
Unfortunately, Colombia is not a big consumer of pasta, which would go a long way in terms of food security.
Countries that achieve greater purchasing power and higher standards of living are great consumers of pasta, but there is an exercise to be done.
And, as I was saying, all foods derived from wheat have, on the one hand, high levels of protein and, on the other hand, fortification that provide all the micronutrients and all the nutrients necessary to be able to carry out daily activities.
Human beings need foods that give us energy and others that give us protein and micronutrients. So, foods that guarantee that are very valuable for our diet.
What kind of wheat products do we export from Colombia?
We mainly export cookies. In fact, Colombia has two 100% national industries that are the ones with the largest exports: Colombina and Noel.
An important clarity: wheat flour is not a product that is widely used in foreign trade. It is preferable to import wheat, so that countries grind it and thus consume their own wheat flour. That is why we do not have large exports of wheat flour, but we are exporters of crackers.
As of October 2023, we have exported 38,128 tons, including sweet cookies, crackers and wafers, which has represented approximately US$96 million in income, so we say that we also contribute to food security in other countries.
Our main exports are directly in Latin America, but we are not global players, like Mondelēz, PepsiCo or Nestlé.
We have important exports of cookies, but we are not among the world’s leading exporters. We have two types of consumers for these products.
One, of course, is the Colombian consumer abroad, which is what we call the nostalgia market or the market of remembrance, because it brings us closer to our country and to what we have consumed since we were children.
We also have a large market of new consumers in those countries, because Colombian products are very popular.
We already have consumers in the United States and throughout Latin America, who are not necessarily Colombian, but who see in our products a nutritional value, a very good quality and a very good cost.
We are currently exporting pasta to Venezuela. This was an important market for Colombia, because Venezuelans are high consumers of pasta and that is why we are sending this product to Venezuela.
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