Bachar BOUBESS: “We have 13 flour mills with a capacity over 3000 tons per day in our country. Our daily consumption as nation is about 1000 tons. After the war process all flour mills are working to increase their capacities and to add new technologies to their mills.   Lebanon-based Modern Mills of Lebanon has a history of 50 years. In its early years, the company had a capacity of 130 tons per day. After investments to increase the capacity, it reached to a capacity of 320 tons per day. The Managing Director Bachar BOUBESS who says their target is to install a biscuit plant in the near future states that after war period lots of mills focused on technology investment. BOUBESS responds our questions about Modern Mills of Lebanon and Lebanese milling market. Mr. Boubess, firstly, could you give us some information on your company Modern Mills of Lebanon and how you have come to today? Modern Mills of Lebanon was established in 1965 by the two families BOI-IBESS and MANSOUR. The mill was designed for a milling capacity of 130 Tons per day, now after a lot of extensions the capacity reached 320 tons per day. Currently our company is capable of producing all kinds of flour with a capacity of 320 tons. What can you say about your product variety? Modern Mills is designed and installed for all kinds of flour from usual flour to bran flour, from high quality flour to whole grain flour that Lebanon needs for its local market. Nevertheless it is designed especially for flour that is used for Lebanese bread that is consumed in the country significantly. Could you give information on your facility and technologies you used? What can you say about the level of your company in capacity and technology usage? The mill has two lines: The first one which is long line is designed for flour production which is suitable for Lebanese bread. The second, short line is designed for flour production which has a low ash that is suitable for other kinds of bread. Our mill is considered to be a medium size mill in the industry of world mills while a big mill in the Lebanese market. Are there any other fields you give service besides flour production? Modern Mills also work in feed products such as trading of corn, barley, and soya. We are aiming to establish a biscuit factory, as to have as much as possible value added for our flour. Currently we are working on installing a biscuit plant. Are you working only for the Lebanese market in the flour milling industry? Are there any export activities or do you have any goals for export? We sometimes have export activities to Syria and Iraq but not always. As Modern Mills of Lebanon, what is your future goal for the investment and market objective? Our objectives are to try to make products that have added value for flour and bran. We as millers are in a very competitive market both in worldwide and in Lebanese local market so we need to add new ideas to our production to compete with this strongly. Could you give some information also on the flour industry in your country? What is the position of Lebanese flour milling sector? We have 13 flour mills with a capacity over 3000 tons per day of flour. Our daily consumption as nation is about 1000 tons -All flour mills after the war are working to increase their capacities and to add new technologies to their mills, even though the trend in Lebanon is to go for healthy foods rather than bread, so the mills are working on increasing the production of healthy flour. What do you think about the future development of your country especially in terms of flour industry? Lebanon is one of the rapidly developing countries. Regarding flour mills as I mentioned above, everybody tries to upgrade its capacity and technology. After the Lebanese war everybody is trying to improve especially towards automation, environmental and food safety techniques. I believe that these improvements will make important contributions to our sector in the future. What would you like to add? Let us hope that political, security and economic problems in Lebanon are solved soon so we, as flour mills, can actualize the improvements that we had planned faster and develop our export opportunities as well.