The 12th TFIF International Congress and Exhibition on the topic of “Global Trade and Milling Technologies” was held in Antalya Sueno Hotels Deluxe Belek between the dates of April 1-2. Faruk Çelik, Turkish Minister of Food, Agriculture and Livestock, opened the Congress where more than 800 foreign and local representatives participated.  Turkish Flour Industrialist’ Federation (TFIF), which represents 412 members and 8 associations formed by the companies spread in all of the geographical regions of Turkey, organized “TFIF International Congress and Exhibition” in Antalya like it does every year. The Congress which was organized for the 12th time with the main theme of “Global Trade and Milling Technologies” opened its gates with a huge organization welcoming more than 800 foreign and local representatives in Antalya Sueno Hotels Deluxe Belek on the date of April 1, Friday. The congress brought flour industrialists, merchants, suppliers, millers, manufacturers of bread and bakery products together and it began with the Sand Art Show by Veysel Çelikdemir. After the show, the opening speech was given by Eren Günhan Ulusoy, Chairman of the Board of TFIF. Eren Günhan Ulusoy highlighted these aspects: “Turkey is the leading country in the world in terms of flour exportation by executing 20.25 percent of world flour trade. Turkey has increased its flour exportation in 2015 up to 5.2 percent on value basis compared to the previous year. In 2015, in spite of the problems occurred in neighboring countries, nearly 1 billion dollar income was achieved for Turkish economy thanks to the success of flour industrialists in exportation. The exportation of wheat products as flour, pasta, cracked wheat, biscuits and bulgur has reached out nearly 3 billion dollars. When we analyze the regional distribution of flour exportation, we observe that the Southeastern Anatolia Region has realized 43 percent of total exportation on quantity basis and 45 percent of it on value basis. Marmara Region is ranked in the second place with its rate of 21%, Mediterranean Region comes in the third place with 13% and Black Sea Region is in the fourth place with 11%. When we consider the first five cities with the highest exportation rates, Mardin ranks in the first place with the rate of 21%. Mardin is followed by Gaziantep with 18%, Istanbul with 12%, Samsun with 7,4% and Mersin with 7,3% respectively. Gary Sharkey, President of European Flour Milling Association, took the floor after Eren Günhan Ulusoy and Sharkey draw attention to the bread consumption in the world. "OUR GRANDCHILDREN WILL SEE THE SOIL ONLY IN FLOWER POTS IN THE FUTURE" Faruk Çelik, the Minister of Food, Agriculture and Livestock participated in the opening ceremony and he underlined in his speech that there will be an extreme demand for agriculture in the following years. Minister Çelik, by reminding that the entire humankind has undergone serious problems in reaching food, stated: “We are face to face with a threat of not accessing to food easily. 3 billion tons of food is wasted all around the world. This shows that while one part of the world lives in poverty, the other part enjoys the abundance. The food comes from the soil. It is not possible to discuss our food problem without soil. There are 5 billion hectares of cultivated land in the world. Yet, only 3.1 hectares of these lands are used for agriculture. When we consider the case in our country, we see that every year nearly 100 thousand hectares lands become non-agriculture lands. If we do not protect our agricultural lands, our grandchildren will not know about the soil. They will only see the soil in the flower pots.” “CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR FLOUR EXPORTATION  CHAMPIONS” Minister Çelik continued his speech by saying “Before food, flour and wheat, we have to show respect and interest to the soil which is the source of all the other things. We are in need of soil when we are born and when we live. Aşık Veysel, our renowned Turkish poet, defined the soil as “Faithful Lover”, and he was extremely right”. Minister Çelik also mentioned about the success of Turkish flour industry in the world: “In terms of wheat seed, Turkey becomes self-sufficient. We are in the first place with respect to flour exportation. We export flour to 118 countries and export pasta to 145 countries. We are conducting an industry based on agriculture. Congratulations once again to you, our flour exportation champions.” 4 SESSIONS, 13 SPEAKERS The congress lasted for 2 days with 4 different sessions. The very first session was begun with the presentation by Dan BASSE, AgResource Company CEO, on the topic of "A World Awash in Grain - How low, For How Long?" In the second session which was moderated by Günhan ULUSOY, Chairman of the Board of TFIF, Hüseyin ÇEVİK, Konya Commodity Exchange President; Çağatay MARAŞ, Market Research Section Manager, Trade Department, Turkish Grain Board; Matt AMMERMANN, Risk Management Consultant, East Europe and Black Sea Region, INTL FCStone; Dimitri RYLKO, Institute for AGricultural Market Studies (IKAR) Director; and Emily FRENCH, ConsiliAgra Director made their presentations on significant topics. In the third and fourth sessions under the title of “Milling Technologies”, 7 speakers participated. The important speakers who delivered their speech in “Milling Technologies” session can be listed as follows: Green Storage, Post Harvest Research Entomologist and Consultant CEO Prof. Dr. Shlomo NAVARRO; Genç Değirmen A.Ş Deputy General Manager Hüsamettin Ali ÇAĞLAR; Polen Flour and Food, Director of Research and Development Ozan TANYERİ; Marmara Grup, Agricultural Engineer Mustafa Kemal ÖZÇELİK; Expert Counselor Rıfat TANIK; Çukurova University Agricultural Faculty Food Engineering Instructor Assoc. Prof. Dr. M. Sertaç ÖZER ve Chief Economist of Turkish Economy Bank Selim ÇAKIR. MAGNIFICENT GALA 2-day long congress program as ended with the gala dinner in the evening of April 2. The sector representatives joined to this night with their families and also the singer Ebru Gündeş gave a concert. One of the remarkable moments of the gala was the birthday cake which was prepared for Mesut Çakmak, the doyen of flour industry and the Chairman of the Executive Board of Beşler Makarna Un İrmik A.Ş.