The craft sector, on the rise

Baking bread for the people of your country is a noble job, but also full of risks and responsibility. That is why the bakery industry is a dynamic field, always in a process of adaptation and development and always in competition. What is the fate of bakery and pastry production in Romania, what is the fate of Romanian bread, here is a question to which I sought an answer from Mr. Aurel Popescu, president of ROMPAN.

- The "Arta Albă" newspaper, which will be published quarterly, aims to bring more information to specialists in the field. You, as President of ROMPAN and representative of these specialists, do you consider that the specialized information from the milling, baking, pastry industry is sufficient?

- Information is never enough, that's clear, and we must recognize that information, at the moment, is a very important factor that can keep us in the fight for existence. Precisely for this reason, we, ROMPAN, sought to attract among our members, in addition to producers of bread, flour, sorghum, pasta, biscuits, pastries, and producers or distributors of raw materials, machinery, packaging, grains so that we have as much hot and permanent information as possible to provide our members with timely information so that they can make informed decisions. So your idea to come up with more information is very good and should be developed.

- Currently, what kind of information do you think is missing or insufficient for specialists in the field?

- I think that, on several levels, the information is not enough: first of all, in accessing European funds, although we, ROMPAN, are the ones who brought this aid scheme for bakery and informed from the project phase about the benefits of the funds European for future investors in the field. I think that you, and the consultants, and all the other factors involved in this process, it is good to keep our colleagues in the bakery "in the loop", with hot information. Secondly, it is certain that there is still insufficient information about the new technologies, the new machines, and they must be developed.

The authorities must carefully analyze the substances used

Mr. Popescu, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), the annual number of cancer cases is estimated to increase by approximately 70% in the next 2 years. (Source: "Situation analysis - World Cancer Day, February 4, 2017). In this analysis, it is shown that, during life, one out of 3 men and one out of 5 women will get cancer. In Romania, according to statistics from 2013, the number of cancer patients reached 67.300, and the number of annual deaths reached 41.000. One of the main reasons, supported by doctors, is the replacement of natural food with one that contains many additives. What is your opinion regarding the additives used in baking and pastry? Do you think they are harmful to health, in the context of daily consumption?

- As long as the additives introduced in the bakery are agreed and approved by the Ministry of Health, I believe that they are not harmful. It is possible that some colleagues in the guild exaggerate with these additives and then, consumed daily, the respective product can be harmful to the body. We have to take into account the fact that the world's population is growing alarmingly, very rapidly, and the earth's natural resources are limited. The only thing we can do is to find new working methods, so that on the existing surfaces, we can meet the demand of the population, through agricultural techniques and not only, which will ensure their food.

It's a trend now, and it's welcome for the bakery industry and artisanal bakery, where people want to eat healthier, without additives, without E's, as natural as possible. But, think about it, for the world's population to eat products only from manufacturing units, it is very difficult. However, here, the European Commission, the European Parliament, the governments of each EU member state must analyze very carefully the substances used, so that they are not harmful to the body.

Therefore, it is necessary to eat balanced, to be very careful about what we consume, to read product labels very carefully, especially after the appearance of regulation 1169, which refers to the nutritional labeling of food products".

Products as close to natural as possible without Es will be developed in the future.

- Currently, there is a tendency to produce BIO, to use ingredients that are as natural as possible. Hypermarkets, quite timidly, have set up shelves with BIO products. In cities with a higher standard of living, there are bakeries that use mayo instead of yeast. How do you think the market will evolve in the bakery, pastry, confectionery sector, in the perspective of this trend?

- I think that this segment will develop, but the state authorities must be very careful, so that we do not spoil the ground we have built. That is, let's not lie to people that they are organic products and they shouldn't be, let's not say that they are traditional products, and the so-called traditional producers should buy the product from the supermarket and resell it as a traditional product. Unfortunately, these cases have increased recently. It is very good that fairs are being developed, in order to give the possibility to the Romanian producer to sell outside commercial networks other than these hypermarkets. But, I repeat, it is good that the authorities strictly control, and that the consumer is not misinformed or wrongly informed about the products they buy. The products, not necessarily organic, but as close as possible to natural, without E's, without other additions, will develop in the future and I am convinced that more and more people will want to consume products of this kind.

We, the Romanians, are ready for this, because, let's face it, our basic raw material, wheat, is healthier than in other countries, because, from a financial point of view, we cannot afford to make large additions of fertilizers, pesticides and other such substances, in the production of wheat. Same with flour. In Romania, there are over 4.500 processing units in the bakery field, and such products can be produced in these units. So it's a good side, which will develop, in my opinion.

Let's be close to the producer in the Romanian food industry

- Since we were talking about the hypermarket, we see whole shelves with imported pastry products, packaged, at quite high prices: biscuits, puff pastry, breadsticks, etc. How can the production of these types of products be encouraged here, in Romania, even by smaller companies that have financial resources? Big companies like Vel Pitar, Croco, Boromir, Alka etc. obviously cannot cover the whole product segment.

- Well, I think we can cover the entire production segment. Unfortunately, many of these products that come from outside, especially from Bulgaria I have seen, are products that, in my opinion, are less healthy, not to say a harsher word, and people have to be very careful about what what they buy The other day I was in the market and I really liked an ad hoc advertisement, in which, on each product - fruit or vegetable - it was written "Romanian": Romanian cabbage, Romanian beans, Romanian strawberries, Romanian cherries. You see, people trust the Romanian product, because, from the point of view of taste, aroma, it is closer to what they want, just like Romanian bread and pastry products. We should search carefully. In Poland, people pass by a hypermarket, but go to Polish stores to buy Polish products there. That's what we should do too, to be close to the producer in the Romanian food industry!

We already have 70.000.000 euros allocated, as of June 1

-In the financial exercise of the European Union from 2008-2014, Romania attracted, in this field, European funds worth over 120 million euros. The current financial year began in 2014, and so far the amount spent by Romania, in this industry, is only four million euros. What needs to be done concretely, to oblige the Romanian state to take advantage of these opportunities and to have constant activity?

– Through the National Rural Development Program, very large sums have been allocated for projects in agriculture and the food industry and, of course, for rural development, which is necessary: ​​water supply, sewage, roads, etc. In my opinion, in the exercise 2014-2020, PNDR will attract all the money. There is an enormous demand for money for this development of the agricultural and rural sector. Unfortunately, nothing was done on other branches of the economy - labor, transport, regional development. This is where the Government and all the representatives of the Romanian state must put their shoulders and spend all the money, so that we don't suffer like in the 2008-2014 exercise, when, at a given moment, we only had 8% and we managed to reach a 70%. So, in our field, on the bakery aid scheme, it is true that the measure started much later. This is because the approvals from Brussels were obtained with great difficulty, because, when the Accession Treaty was signed, in the annex, the secondary processing of cereals was not part of the sectors that would benefit from European funds, and we, alas, we succeeded and got the necessary approvals to introduce the secondary processing of cereals through this aid scheme. It started a little later, but as of June 1, we already have 70.000.000 euros allocated. There are still about 10.000.000 euros unspent from October 2016 - January 2017 and I think we will use all the money allocated to the scheme, and if more is needed, I proposed, because I am part of the Monitoring Committee of PNDR, as the unconsumed sums in some agricultural or non-agricultural sectors, I am referring here to rural development, to be able to distribute them where required, in Measure 4.1., in our GBER aid scheme, so that we consume all the money.

I am also the president of OEPA Cereale and because in the guidelines for all measures, those who are OEPA members have a provision for an additional score, I see that we sign dozens of certificates of OEPA members every day, which means that there is a request.

Vocational schools in partnership with bakeries and large producers

- A problem that has already become critical, faced by companies in this field, is the lack of labor force and personnel with adequate training. There are no more professional schools, practically, nowadays, the staff is qualified on the job. How could ROMPAN support the establishment of vocational schools, perhaps even in partnership with large Romanian producers?

- Vocational schools must necessarily be in partnership with bakeries, with producers, because if you have nowhere to practice, theory is not of much value. Here, the problem is much more complex. For two years, we have noticed that there will be a problem with the workforce. Here, the politicians, the Romanian State, and the local authorities made big mistakes by allocating these aids that are given to people who do not work. Basically, I'll say it in Romanian, I encouraged not working, in conjunction with the fact that many young people, and not only young people, went abroad.

We have a shortage of skilled and unskilled labor. We can keep this labor force in the country only through salary increases, in such a way as to create a balance between the incomes from outside and those from Romania.

On the other hand, of course, we want to create professional schools. We, ROMPAN, have a bakery, and we have tried, with vocational schools in Bucharest, to hire children directly from school, to perfect them, to give them a good qualification, and when they finish school, they should be ready to work. No one is coming! Because this encouragement of unemployment and the shame of being a worker created this state of affairs, that no one wants to be an electrician, mechanic, welder, baker, miller. If we call him a specialist in I-don't-know-what field, we might be able to attract them. The problem is complex, the determining factors being both the educational policies in Romania and the mentality of the family.

I think that a very good method is the diversification of production

- In the south of Romania, but not only, the bakers' earnings remained very low, as a result, their re-technological power is also very low. One of the ways in which profit can increase is to be able to purchase raw materials at lower prices. In certain European countries, we know that there are associations of bakers, with the aim of buying the raw material, in larger quantities, at lower prices. Could such an association be initiated in Romania as well?

- We have been doing this for 10 years. We have created a company with shareholders from ROMPAN members, which is called ROMPAN Proiect Service, a company that deals with services for our members, such as: the purchase of machinery, design and assembly of machinery, we buy raw materials, packaging and all kinds of ingredients in a larger quantity and we get a better price and in turn offer them to our members. Of course, you cannot do this for an entire territory, but those who are interested can work with us without problems. Now, we are developing and we hope that this year we will succeed in a centralized export of flour, because, you realize, if every mill participates in an auction, the price goes down, but we, in an auction international, we can go for a price maybe even better than the price that is on the national market. So, there are all kinds of methods that we have tried, we are practicing them at the moment and I think we can develop them further. On the other hand, we must take into account the fact that, in order to be able to survive in the market, we must also change the price of bread.

In 2017, from January 1 until now, the price of raw materials has increased by about 10%, as well as the price of labor, through this minimum wage which has increased quite a lot, and the price of utilities, and we are now in the situation of working at a loss, because we cannot change the price of bread, that you lose your customers. And then, I think that a very good method is the diversification of production.

Franzela is sold from 0,60 lei to 1,20 lei. Very well, let it continue to be sold, but let's make other complementary products that we can come up with and to which we can walk a little on the price, so that we can ensure a profit margin with which we can continue to develop.

Our chance is to modernize and automate as much as possible the activity of bread production and more. Slowly, slowly, we have to replace the man from packaging, from putting the bread in the oven, etc., so that the manufacturers and traders of bakery equipment come with solutions close to our members and all bread producers in Romania, so that we can modernize the production activity with less labor force.

I see a reduction in bread production from hypermarkets and an increase in artisanal and industrial production

- How do you think the bakery - pastry industry will look in Romania in 10 years, both in terms of company structure, diversity of products, and diversity of products?

- I think that in 10 years the bakery sector will look somewhat like it does now, and I will tell you why: first of all, we are going with the idea that these frozen products, even if they are on a growth trend, will sell less and less. Let's take into account what happened to Turkish bread in the 90s. You know that we came after a socialist economy, in which bread was rationed in many areas of the country, people came from various areas of the country to Bucharest and bought bread by the bag and carried it on the train. Of course no one had access to warm, fresh, good bread because of this way of distribution and sale, so then, after the revolution, the Turks came, they set up ovens on the street corner and gave out warm bread made by direct method. Then, there was a very serious setback to the bread factories that worked mechanized, with tunnel ovens, with a continuous baking line, but people realized that the bread was not to their taste. Slowly, slowly, they returned to traditional bread made by industry and not only by artisanal bakeries. The same thing, I think, will happen with bread from hypermarkets. People will understand that it is a bread brought from Holland, frozen since I don't know when. In Romania, the artisanal sector will be developed, in order to give the consumer a bread as fresh as possible and as close as possible to what he demands from a taste point of view, in conjunction with the industrial development of some factories to maintain global distribution in the country.