- Mühlenchemie’s “Flour Sack of the Year 2016” award goes to Arabian Milling & Food Industry
- The power and strength of the tiger transmits itself to the premium brand of an Egyptian mill
The gala dinner for the 2017 Global Millers Symposium provided a noble setting: Volkmar Wywiol presented in Hamburg the 2016 Flour Sack Award to Tarek Hafez and Montaser Hosny from the Egyptian company Arabian Milling & Food Industry. The Flour Sack of the Year 2016 shows a proud Bengal tiger whose power and strength are depicted on the premium brand of this Egyptian mill. With this award, the winner of which is chosen by an independent panel of judges, Mühlenchemie honours flour sack motifs as carriers of regional cultures. They are to be seen at the FlourWorld Museum in Wittenburg.
Arabian Milling & Food Industry is the biggest enterprise in the Egyptian food industry. One reason for its success is that it exports its products to countries of the African continent. The impressive motif of the tiger symbolises the high quality of the mill’s premium brand that is distributed mainly in the equatorial region. “Although the tiger is not an African animal, its power is an excellent symbol of life in the jungle and therefore acts as a bracket for the many different cultures of that region. Its strength and dignity are a perfect way of conveying the claims we make concerning our company and the quality of our products,” says Tarek Hafez, Milling Operations Director of Arabian Milling & Food Industry in Egypt.
Like those of the many sacks before it, this year’s motif from the “Flour Sack of the Year” will find a place of honour in Mühlenchemie’s “FlourWorld”. With 3,400 exhibits from 137 countries, this museum near Hamburg houses the world’s biggest collection of flour sacks.
The unique exhibition is devoted to the cultural history of man’s most important staple food. As the museum’s central feature, the motifs on the sacks tell of the traditions of flour, its history and the myths surrounding it. That makes this collection a “hall of fame”, a tribute to all the millers who provide man with flour – day in, day out. The museum is to be enlarged continuously as a “forum of cereal science” in order to familiarise consumers, too, with the history and significance of corn for our daily bread.
From a total of 244 new sacks, ten were shortlisted for the 2016 award. The winning motif impressed the judges with its high emotional value. In his speech, Volkmar Wywiol, the founder of the museum and a partner of Mühlenchemie, underlined the judges’ verdict: “The Bengal tiger gazes at the viewer with pride and confidence. Above all, the tiger stands for the power and strength conferred on man by flour. The animal’s typical attributes – courage, speed and stamina – are associated with the quality of the flour. The success of its exports to other African countries is confirmation that the mill is right: good sack motifs are good selling points.”
