Russian flour mill increases production with new machinery
The company’s main customers are wholesalers and manufacturers of bakery and confectionery, both across Russia, where it represents a 3 per cent share of the total flour market, and in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
The company expects the dampening unit to be up and running by the end of this month, increasing wheat flour output by 1000 tonnes a year. Grain dampening equipment is designed to deal with fluctuations in moisture levels and enable the production of better quality flour, with improved whiteness and gluten quality.
PAVA’s public relations manager Yulia Chebotareva told BakeryandSnacks.com: “The installation is firstly to increase the quality of the product and the quality of our high-grade flour facility. We expect to increase our processing capacity by 37 to 40 tonnes of grain per day, increasing product output by 0.5 per cent.”
PAVA runs three mills across Russia, currently producing a total of 360,000 tonnes of wheat flour each year. The Rebrikha mill at Barnaul, in the Altay Territory, has the largest grain processing capability, at 750 tonnes per day.
The installation of similar equipment at its other mills earlier this year – at Mikhailovsky, also in the Altay Territory, and Achinsk, in the Krasnoyarsk Territory - increased output by 5 per cent, but the company’s aim now is to expand its production of high-value products. It hopes to export up to 18 per cent of its total flour production this year – or 55,000 tonnes.
“We expect the investment to pay back in a month,” said Chebotareva, “The new unit allows us to stabilise moisture levels, increase productivity, improve output of high-grade flour and increase the amount of selected semolina and extra-grade flour.”
This latest machinery is part of a larger modernisation programme at PAVA, which included installing a new complex for receiving and drying grain at Rebrikha and upgrading its grain cleaning equipment at all three mills in March. Last month, the company also announced that it plans to open a grain fractionation plant in 2010, for the production of wheat gluten, starches and syrups.
Apart from its commercial sales, PAVA has also collaborated with the United Nations within the framework of the World Food Programme, exporting vitamin-enriched flour to developing countries for the past two years.
