Wheat Flour

Figure 22: Livestock (left axis) and poultry (right axis) inventories in the
WBCs (thousand people)
45,000
40,000
35,000
30,000
25,000
20,000
15,000
10,000
5,000
0
1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
70,000
60,000
50,000
40,000
30,000
20,000
10,000
0
Source: FAOSTAT
Most WBCs experienced urbanization and emigration of the workforce to
neighbouring EU countries during the last nine years. This is especially true of
the former Yugoslav countries, although the opposite situation is observed in
Albania, where urbanization is quite moderate. Urbanization does not help to
increase individual income and, consequently, lead to an increase in the per
capita consumption of flour.
7.2 Wheat flour production and consumption
7.2.1 Milling industry
Bosnia and Herzegovina, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and
Serbia and Montenegro, and have a sophisticated flour milling industry that
was built using European technologies back in the times of the former Yugoslav
countries. Today, the largest suppliers of milling machinery and equipment to
these countries are the Swiss, Italian and Czech manufacturers (Buhler, GBS,
Prokop, Ocrim and others). In the last few years, Turkish manufacturers also
assumed a substantial role in the supplying of milling machinery. Prospects
of entry into EU markets prompted flour producers in the WBCs to introduce
new production techniques to produce hydro-thermally processed flour, fastcooking
groats and stabilized wheat embryos, and to improve the quality of
local flour.
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