Based in Gaziantep and run by the third generation of the Tan family, Tanis Milling Technologies has grown into a global player, supplying turnkey flour, semolina, corn, pulses and feed plants to investors in more than 70 countries. In Jeddah, Tanis Milling General Manager Emre Tan explained why Africa and the Middle East form the “backbone” of the company’s business and how the new Puridant Semolina Purifier and its vertical corn degerminator are delivering tangible performance gains on the ground.

Tanis Milling
General Manager Emre Tan

Combining its roots as a third-generation family business with turnkey engineering for grain and feed processing, Tanis Milling now designs and delivers projects across a broad geography despite increasingly challenging global market conditions. In an interview with Miller Magazine during the IAOM MEA 2025 Conference & Expo, Tan describes how shrinking demand and tightening trade finance have turned many exporters into “part-time bankers,” and outlines how Tanis is positioning itself with Puridant, its vertical corn degermination technology and a growth strategy built on a careful balance of competition, financing and technology.

In the following Q&A, Emre Tan shares his views on market conditions, key export markets and Tanis Milling’s roadmap for the years ahead.

Mr. Tan, for readers who may not know Tanis Milling Technologies very well, how would you describe the company and its position in the market today?

Tanis Milling is a family-owned company, now managed by the third generation. I serve as General Manager, and we continue to work together with my father, Mr. Kemal, who remains very active in the business.

Founded in 1956 in Gaziantep, Tanis has grown into one of Turkey’s leading manufacturers of milling machinery and industrial grain processing solutions. From turnkey flour and semolina mills to corn milling plants, oilseed and pulses processing lines, feed mills, and grain storage and handling systems, we offer a broad portfolio of complete plants and stand-alone machines for the grain and food industry. Our production takes place in our modern facilities in the Gaziantep Organized Industrial Zone, where we operate more than 30,000–40,000 m² of enclosed manufacturing space and manage engineering, fabrication, installation, and commissioning in-house.

Today I can say that Tanis Milling is among the top five Turkish milling machinery suppliers. We assess this not only in terms of turnover, but also in terms of market reach, the quality of the expos and conferences we attend, and the scale and technical complexity of the projects we deliver. 

With reference mills and grain processing plants in more than 60–70 countries across five continents, we see ourselves as a reliable solution partner for investors both in Türkiye and in international markets.

TIGHT DEMAND, TOUGH CREDIT

What are the industry’s toughest challenges right now, especially when it comes to financing and export procedures?

We have to recognise that the global market is under pressure. Demand is tightening, access to finance is becoming more difficult, and this affects all Turkish exporters, not only milling machinery producers. We often feel like part-time bankers: dealing with letters of credit, guarantees, correspondent banks and very long approval processes. In one project, for example, we have been waiting around eight months just for the final LC confirmation – and this is not an isolated case.

You mentioned serious bottlenecks in trade finance. What is happening there, particularly in the African markets where many Turkish milling machinery manufacturers are active?

In a typical project, you may spend six months building trust, negotiating and finally reaching an agreement with the customer. Then comes the real challenge: opening and confirming the letter of credit.

In the regions where we work – especially Sub-Saharan Africa and francophone countries – euro is often preferred and French is the main language of business. This naturally brings French and German correspondent banks into the picture. Political considerations also play a role in how smoothly things move between a Turkish exporter and an African importer.

The difficulties can be on the buyer’s bank side or the seller’s bank side, particularly if the bank’s foreign trade operations are not very experienced. But in many cases, the main bottleneck is at the level of intermediary or correspondent banks. Everybody in the chain wants to hold on to the money for as long as possible, including the banks themselves, and this slows down the circulation of funds in the system.

We are living in an environment of global inflation and recessionary pressure, not only in Türkiye but in most of the countries we work with. Access to hard currency – euro and dollar – is difficult. As exporters, we have had to learn the language of trade finance and adapt to very technical banking jargon.

I believe that once global liquidity improves and there is more “money in motion”, banks will become more flexible and projects will flow more easily again. Until then, exporters in our sector have to be very persistent and very patient.

‘AFRICA AND THE MIDDLE EAST ARE OUR BACKBONE’

We are here in Saudi Arabia, at IAOM MEA Conference & Expo 2025. What does the Middle East and Africa region mean for Tanis Milling?

For us, Africa has been a core export destination since the late 1980s and early 1990s, when we first started to export. Our production base is in Gaziantep, which is strategically well located: geographically close to the Middle East and with good logistics links into Africa. Thanks to Turkish Airlines and other carriers, there is hardly any destination we cannot reach.

Our export story started in the Middle East and Africa. Today, we are proud to say that our network extends from Latin America to Southeast Asia, but this region remains our backbone. The consumption habits and food culture in the Middle East and Africa fit very well with our industry and our technology.

At the moment, Tanis Milling has a presence in more than 70 countries worldwide. I have personally visited around 60 different countries – often more than once – and our sales team and management are very active in the field. So, reaching more than 70 countries is not a coincidence; it is the result of consistent, long-term effort.

We consider both the Middle East and Africa to be indispensable markets, and we will continue to strengthen our partnerships and presence here with solution-oriented projects.

NEW TECHNOLOGY PUSH AT TANIS MILLING

From a technology perspective, what are the latest innovations that Tanis Milling has brought to the market? What have you chosen to highlight at IAOM MEA?

About twelve months ago, we launched our new semolina purifier model, branded Puridant. We have presented it at several fairs, and we were pleased to see strong interest from both the sector.

The key differentiating feature of the Puridant Semolina Purifier is its sieving surface. Compared with standard models, Puridant offers around 25% more effective sieving area. This gives our diagram engineers and our customers a significant advantage. Depending on the process, the increase in effective area can translate into roughly 10% higher machine throughput in the same footprint.

When you have several purifiers in one line, this gain accumulates and you see a very clear improvement in overall process efficiency and product quality.

You are also emphasising maize processing and a new degerminator design. Can you tell us more about that?

Yes, corn processing is a very important focus area for us. At this fair, we are showcasing our vertical degerminator for maize – a vertical-type degerminator. Traditionally, many plants have used horizontal-type degerminators. Our vertical model delivers clear advantages in capacity, yield and energy efficiency compared with conventional horizontal designs. We do not say this only in brochures; we have done extensive side-by-side testing. Together with a partner company in Gaziantep that specialises in maize, we conducted laboratory analyses and performance comparisons in a plant where horizontal degerminators were already in operation.

In those trials, we compared two horizontal 75 kW degerminators with a single 75 kW Tanis vertical degerminator operating at the same capacity. The vertical unit achieved higher yield and better separation of bran and germ. These results are supported by lab data and graphs from a very strong R&D and quality-control setup.

This performance difference gives Tanis Milling a significant edge in maize processing. It also creates value for customers, because the by-products – the bran and germ – are rich in fibre and oil and therefore more valuable as animal feed ingredients than a typical wheat bran stream.

How do you position this technology in the market? Do you mainly sell it as a stand-alone machine or as part of complete maize plants?

Our preference is to integrate our technology into complete processes that we design ourselves. Of course, there are projects where other companies build maize plants and choose to include our degerminator in their flowsheets, and we are happy to cooperate. But in general, we are a bit conservative: we like to use our own process design and our own equipment together.

Maize processing is not “one size fits all”. White maize, yellow maize and different maize varieties require different process concepts. You cannot simply say “maize is maize” and use the same flow everywhere. The end product matters: are you producing grits for the snack and beer industries, maize flour, or feed?

So, in maize plants – as in our wheat flour mills and feed mills – we treat each project as tailor-made. Even if two plants have the same capacity in the same country, there can be significant differences in the flowsheet based on the investor’s market vision and strategy.

Globally, maize prices are still typically USD 50–70 per ton lower than wheat, depending on the period. That means the value addition you create by processing maize into semolina, flour and high-quality by-products can be even more attractive than in wheat. For many investors, this is an important reason to look seriously at maize projects.

You also mentioned a new project in Saudi Arabia. What can you share about that?

We have been active in the Saudi market for more than ten years, mainly with wheat and pulses cleaning projects. However, this will be our first maize grits project in the Kingdom. We are supplying a 250-ton-per-day maize semolina plant in the industrial area of Riyadh. If everything goes according to plan, the mill will be operational around May 2026. Installation is ongoing, the building works and infrastructure are progressing, and all machines have already been shipped to Saudi Arabia. For us, this is a flagship reference in the region and a strong signal of our commitment to the Saudi market.

HEALTHY COMPETITION, VALUE-DRIVEN BUSINESS

Finally, is there a message you would like to share with the milling industry?

There is no sector without competition and that is a good thing. Healthy competition pushes companies to innovate, to improve their engineering and service, and ultimately benefits investors and millers. What we would like to see, as Tanis Milling, is competition that is sustainable and value-driven. Our focus is on designing robust, efficient plants, investing in R&D and standing behind our projects in the long term. We believe that this approach, combined with honest and transparent pricing, is what will keep both suppliers and investors strong in the years ahead.

At the end of the day, our common goal as an industry is to deliver safe, high-quality food to consumers. If we keep that goal in mind, and if we build projects on trust and technical excellence, then everyone in the value chain – from farmer to miller to equipment supplier – will benefit.c