World Grain - March 2013 - 15

A ﬂour art museum story | No. 2

newsreview
German flour mills fined for anti-competitive behavior
BONN, GERMANY — The Bundeskartellamt said on Feb. 19 it has concluded its cartel
proceedings against companies in the milling industry and imposed ﬁnes of €41 million euros on 22 companies, the association
of German mills (Verband Deutscher Mühlen e.V.) and their representatives on account
of their involvement in illegal agreements in
the sale of ﬂour.
A ﬁrst ﬁne of €24 million had already
been imposed in the same proceeding in October 2011.
In February 2008, the Bundeskartellamt
searched several milling companies in Germany after receiving information from the
market about agreements on prices and quantities. Subsequently, several companies ﬁled
applications for leniency and offered their
cooperation in clarifying the facts of the case.
“Since 2001, representatives of the milling
companies involved had agreed on prices, customer allocation and supply volumes in regular rounds of talks. The agreements applied to
all forms of ﬂour distribution, i.e. to industrial
customers (such as bakery product manufacturers and bakery chains), artisan bakers and
the direct sale of ﬂour in small packages (max.
1 kg packets) to food retailers,” said Andreas
Mundt, president of the Bundeskartellamt.
“With the proceedings initiated in 2008, we
have uncovered and put an end to this system
of price, customer allocation and market sharing agreements in the milling industry which
has been practiced over many years.”
In addition, the companies coordinated
capacity planning by shutting down mills
or preventing mills which had already been
shut down from being returned to operation.
In addition to VK Mühlen AG, which was
already ﬁned in October 2011, the following
companies were involved in the agreements:
Werhahn Mühlen GmbH & Co. KG, Georg
Plange GmbH & Co. KG, Mühle Rüningen
GmbH & Co. KG and Pfälzische Mühlen-

werke GmbH, Grain Millers GmbH & Co.
KG (with its subsidiaries Bremer Rolandmühle Erling GmbH & Co. KG, Mills United
Hovestadt & Münstermann GmbH and Heyl
GmbH & Co. KG), Saalemühle Alsleben
GmbH, Flechtorfer Mühle Walter Thönebe
GmbH, Gebr. Engelke Große Mühle HasedeHildesheim GmbH & Co. KG, Magdeburger
Mühlenwerke GmbH, Oderland Mühlenwerke Müllrose GmbH & Co. KG, Hedwigsburger Okermühle GmbH, Thüringer Mühlenwerke GmbH, Albert Mühlschlegel GmbH &
Co. KG, Friedrich Wilhelm Borgstedt Milser
Mühle GmbH, Südhannoversche Mühlenwerke Engelke GmbH, Frießinger Mühle
GmbH, Bliesmühle GmbH, Karl Bindewald Kupfermühle GmbH, Cramer Mühle
KG, Heinrich Thylmann GmbH & Co. KG
Kilianstädtermühle, Rheintal Mühlen GmbH
and Heiss Mühle GmbH.
A representative of the association of German mills also participated in the cartel discussions and assisted the representatives from
the various mills in organizing meetings of
the cartel and coordinating the agreements.
The ﬁnes imposed on the individual companies are calculated according to the seriousness and duration of the involvement in
the cartel. In addition, the economic viability
of the companies involved was given special
consideration in this particular case, also in
view of the fact that the French and Dutch
competition authorities have already imposed heavy ﬁnes on German mills for their
involvement in other agreements. The proceedings were conducted in close cooperation with the competition authorities of the
two neighboring countries.
In setting the ﬁnes, the Bundeskartellamt
also took into account that in addition to VK
Mühlen AG, the milling companies of the
Werhahn group and Grain Millers group also
cooperated extensively with the Bundeskartellamt in clarifying the accusations.

Japan to increase wheat prices by 9.7%
TOKYO, JAPAN — Japan’s Ministry of
Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF)
recently announced that, due to surging procurement costs and the effects of yen depreciation, it will raise the price of imported
wheat that it sells to domestic ﬂour millers.
Japan imports about 90% of the wheat it
consumes domestically. This strategy of uniﬁed wheat imports is designed to secure a
stable supply.
The ministry said it will raise the price of
www.World-Grain.com / World Grain / March 2013

ﬁve brands of wheat, including crops from
the United States and Australia, by an average
9.7%, to about $600 per tonne from April.
MAFF attributed the increase to wheat
costs moving in tandem with soaring corn
and soybean prices amid a drought in the
U.S. Japan imports the largest amount of
wheat from the U.S.
Other factors MAFF noted included reduced production by Australia and higher
purchasing costs due to the weaker yen.

For a good time,
visit the mill
Since 1889 the world-famous “Moulin
Rouge” – or “Red Mill” – has enticed
visitors to Montmartre in Paris. This
legendary variety theatre features cancan dancers and exotic revues, and
unlike mediaeval mills it is located in
the middle of the entertainment district Pigalle. Because nowadays, erotic
entertainment is found downtown. But
in the old days, you went out to the
seclusion of the mill. Nestled discreetly
in a forest or on a stream far from
town, the mill was long considered
a place of permissiveness and forbidden lust. Mill brothels are known from
antiquity, and if the mill itself wasn’t
the house of ill repute, then such establishments could be found along the
well-travelled mill road. Indeed, milling and sensuality are so intimately
interwoven that “grind” came to
signify the sex act in more than one
language. With these erotic associations, it is no wonder that the Moulin
Rouge in Paris chose a windmill as its
trademark.
www.ﬂour-art-museum.de
www.muehlenchemie.de
For more information, see Page 94.

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World Grain - March 2013

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