PARIS, FRANCE — In response to changing domestic and foreign markets, as well as rising costs and increasingly varied and exacting consumer demands, French milling giant Moulins Soufflet has built a new flour mill. The facility was constructed near France’s capital and largest city, Paris, and the country’s main production area for milling wheat. 

Bertrand Guilloteau, director of the new mill, explained to World Grain that the Soufflet Group, owned since 2021 by InVivo, a farmer-owned agribusiness giant active along the supply chain, had identified a need for a new mill in Corbeil-Essonnes on the outskirts of Paris. Part of the reason was to change the focus of Moulins-Soufflet’s operations in the town, adapting to the long-term downward trend in flour exports. 

Pointing to the long history of the location as a site for milling, Guilloteau explained that the previous mill was large and constructed with the primary purpose of supplying large-scale export markets, mainly in Africa and the Middle East, with standard flour, via French ports. 

“The flour export market has dried up,” he said. “It’s easier to export wheat, and the countries of Africa and the Middle East have built their own mills.” 

He also pointed to the availability of low-priced wheat from Russia and Ukraine to France’s traditional export markets, particularly since shipments through the Black Sea have ramped back up in recent months. 

The changing market left the plant at Corbeil-Essonnes too big for its French domestic market, so the decision was taken to cease production and rebuild from scratch. The historic former Grands Moulins de Corbeil facility, built in the late 19th century, is to be converted into housing under a scheme designed to preserve its character. Instead, there are now two completely new mills, each with a capacity of 450 tonnes a day (270,000 tonnes a year), half of which goes for producing flour destined for individual sectors of the agrifood industry, while the rest is used for milling classic types of wheat.

Network of mills

Moulins Soufflet operates nine mills in France and one in Belgium, producing an annual 830,000 tonnes of flour (wheat equivalent) with a staff of 515 employees — 434 in France and 81 at its Belgian plant. It buys and processes more than 1 million tonnes of wheat a year, with 41% coming from supply chains designated as sustainable such as parent company InVivo’s own Semons du Sens (which translates roughly as “let’s sow sense”). 

The other InVivo group operation involved in the Corbeil-Essonnes mill is Episens, the cooperative group’s grain chain organization, which brings together Moulins Soufflet, the ingredients producer AIT Ingrédients, Soufflet Biotechnologies, and bakery and pastry producer Neuhauser. 

Guilloteau described the new mills as “high tech, driven by information technology,” which has transformed the role of the miller from making tiny adjustments to cylinders to being “really sure” how the machinery is working. 

He also explained the decision to rebuild at the same location. Corbeil-Essonnes is at the confluence of two rivers: the Essonne and the Seine, which flows through Paris to the port of Le Havre in Normandy, which means it can be supplied by barge. 

“Above all, it was because all our wheat comes from a radius of 80 or 90 kilometers around the mill, which means we have a very short supply line,” he said. “It also helps that we are close to the storage facilities of our colleagues at Soufflet Agriculture, meaning we can stock all our wheat without using insecticide, which is perfect for the needs of our commercial customers.” 

Soufflet Agriculture’s collection and storage site in Pézarches, some 50 kilometers away, can operate without the need for post-harvest treatment, which is particularly valuable for the mill’s sustainable flour brand, Baguépi.

There is also storage at the mill itself, with 68 silos used for wheat and 46 for flour. This means that every single batch of wheat and flour can be isolated, with blockchain technology used to help ensure perfect traceability of products from the field to the bakery.

Moulins Soufflet operates nine mills in France and one in Belgium, producing 830,000 tonnes of flour (wheat equivalent) annually.

| Credit: ©INVIVO

“We’ve got an excellent geographical location with 15% of our wheat arriving by barge, giving us a short and clean supply route,” he said. 

Guilloteau added that “on the sales side, we are at the gates of Paris. The site was not chosen at random.” 

Separate storage means that the mill can produce many types of flour, including notably very white T38 flour, helped by the plant’s high-performance sifting equipment, as well as laser sorting. The system is also leakproof. 

“That means that we can avoid cross-contamination, which is important for ensuring the quality of specialist flour,” Guilloteau said. “From the time grain comes into the mill until the flour leaves, everything is sealed.”

Moulins Soufflet worked with outside experts on the design of the mill, a process that “worked very well,” Guilloteau said. 

Milling equipment from Italy-based Omas was selected, “because it gave us the possibility of saving 30% of the energy consumption by the cylinders in comparison with what we had before,” something that was a priority “in view of the sharp rises in electricity costs in recent years.” 

The savings are achieved by a new type of motorization, the Omas Kinematic Energy Recovery System (KERS), which redistributes unused energy. The system also reduces roller mill electricity consumption and recovers the unused kinetic energy from the cylinders during milling. 

Because the mill stands five stories tall, the gravitational force can be used in the process, which adds to energy savings. 

The main equipment supplied by Omas includes six Galileo S p.g830 plansifters, eight Michelangelo mi50 purifiers, four Leonardo S 8x1250x250 roller mills and 34 Leonardo S 4x1000x250 roller mills.

Bertrand Guilloteau, director, Moulins Soufflet’s Corbeil-Essonnes mill.

| Credit: ©INVIVO

Consumer demand

The COVID pandemic trend in which home baking increased has been largely reversed, Guilloteau said.

“At one stage, people were baking cakes with their children,” he said. “Now they’ve gone back to work, and they don’t have the time anymore.” 

He noted a long-term change in the role of many of France’s bakeries, as they’ve widened their offerings. France has a strong tradition of artisan bakeries, with a baker on every corner producing a constant supply of fresh bread throughout the day. Most are independent, although chains range up to the 850-branch giant Marie Blachère, which famously has a branch in New York, New York, US. 

“They are increasingly replacing the traditional French café,” he said, selling sandwiches, cakes and coffee, with places for customers to sit down and eat. A large part of the reason is a decline in the popularity of the traditional two-hour lunch, as busy people change to snacking. It means that bakeries are also challenging fast-food chains such as McDonald’s, particularly as the US outlets have become more expensive. 

“For some bakers, 80% of their turnover is now in sandwiches,” Guilloteau said, noting that a price advantage over more traditional restaurants was a major factor behind this trend. 

Another big shift in recent years has been the call for sustainability, with consumers taking a greater interest in the origin of food and the environmental effects of its production. Of the more than 1,000 tonnes of wheat brought in each day by the mills at Corbeil-Essonnes, more than half comes from sustainable supply chains, including Semons du Sens, notably to produce the Baguépi flour range, as well as l’Authentique, la Tradition artisan, la Sélection d’antan, la Sélection ambrée, la Tradition prestige Label Rouge, and Terre de Sens Label Rouge. 

Label Rouge (Red Label) is a widely used food quality standard in France described as identifying a higher quality level to standard food products. 

For Moulins Soufflet, the sustainable flour segment has seen continuous growth over 18 years, with the volume of flour coming from sustainable supply chains increased by a factor of 12 over 12 years to reach 300,000 tonnes, involving at its source 3,200 partner farmers. Including other products, such as barley and wine, the Semons du Sens initiative covers more than 8,500 farmers. 

It includes a commitment to use 100% traceable French wheat, produced using agricultural practices that protect the environment and promote biodiversity. The wheat is not treated after harvest, and carefully selected varieties are used. There’s also a commitment to fair distribution of value throughout the chain with a premium paid to farmers.