Slaney Flour, a joint venture between Hemelter Ireland and Ballycarney Grain, has turned the first sod on a new mill in Ballycarney, Co Wexford.

The flour mill will produce around 80,000t of flour each year from approximately 100,000t of grain. This means that the mill will use 300t of grain every day, with 24,000t of storage on site.

The company stated that “the construction of the new mill marks the beginning of an important chapter for Slaney Flour. As a joint venture between Hemelter Ireland and Ballycarney Grain, we are bringing together our experience, strong regional ties and our shared vision for the future.”

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Taken for granted

“Flour is something most of us take for granted,” said Jan Cordesmeyer of Hemelter Mühle. “It sits in every kitchen cupboard. It is inexpensive. It is available every day, and hardly anyone stops to think where it comes from.

“But flour is one of the foundations of our food-supply chain, and as flour millers, it is our job to ensure that people can rely on something very basic: their daily bread.”

Hemelter Ireland supplies high-quality flour across Ireland on behalf of Hemelter Mühle, a German, family-owned milling group. It has been in the flour-milling business since 1893 and has had a presence in Ireland since 1993.

It currently imports 40,000t of flour into Ireland each year.

Special

“As tillage farmers, there is something particularly special about turning the sod to begin this project,” said Andrew Kavanagh of Ballycarney Grain. “For me, it connects where we've come from and where we want to go.”

Minister of Agriculture, Food and the Marine Martin Heydon said that he is very excited to see Irish wheat being turned into Irish flour.

“We know how important our indigenous agricultural industry is to us,” he said.

“This is about future generations, there are people who aren't born yet who will grow wheat that will be milled here in Slaney Flour, and there'll be plenty of people who aren't born yet who'll enjoy that bread.

“This is a huge opportunity. It is exactly what we want to do with our tillage sector.”