Pierre GUEZ (President-Managing Director Group Dijon Céréales)
The cereal industry in Burgundy has enjoyed for a number of years the positive results of unifying actions in all the branches of this sector of industry. These actions underline the importance of the sector’s primary objective: create openings in export markets for innovative products.
Accordingly, three Burgundy companies with intersecting fields of expertise – Dijon Céréales (flour milling), Eurogerm (food additives) and the Elancia Group (former Panidor Group – baked goods) – created in 1998 in a joint venture the company “Bourgogne, Terre de Culture (BTC), in an effort to respond to the need for innovation in an international market in which it is today important to be increasingly proactive.
The approach advocated by this trio of companies, and that adopted by the Vitagora Wheat-Breadmaking Cluster to which they belong, is unique. It involves all the stages of production “from the field to the plate” in order to generate innovation and added value.
A food staple present in numerous forms throughout the world, and benefiting from a large international market, bread presents the Vitagora Wheat-Breadmaking Cluster with attractive opportunities to develop innovative products that correspond to specific criteria in terms of taste and nutrition.
Besides the founders of BTC, other companies of the baked goods and flour milling sector are involved in the Vitagora company cluster: Moulins Nicot, Mulot et Petitjean, PatiPrestige etc.
Having close ties to INRA Dijon, CESG, CRITT 2ABI and ENSBANA for sensorial anayses, the Wheat-Breadmaking Cluster has also founded partnerships with other agricultural Competitive Clusters (Pôles de Compétitivité) in France in order to put research programmes into action in the areas of genetics and wheat processing.
The ambitions of the Wheat-Breadmaking Cluster are formed around a wide-ranging project called “FLOUR +”.
The goal of this project is to identify and control the key factors that will allow the cluster to provide European, even international, consumers with a range of baked products with a high added value in terms of “Taste-Nutrition-Health” and convenience thanks to the optimisation of each link of the supply chain.
The FLOUR + project is composed of 3 distinct stages:
Phase 1: Creation of a technical and scientific “inventory” in terms of hygiene/safety, sensorial and nutrition of the wheat/baked goods sector. This comprehensive document is designed to orient and support the principal lines of development selected by the cluster.
Phase 2: Creation of developmental tools specific to Vitagora designed to put in place products and services for the Wheat-Breadmaking Cluster. Scientific intelligence actions will be carried out with the addition of a market study to help identify new markets and “Taste-Nutrition-Health” products.
Phase 3: Set up the products and services of the Wheat and Breadmaking Cluster through a continuous transfer of knowledge acquired through the course of the two previous stages.
BreadmakingJean-Philippe FASQUEL (Scientist, Eurogerm)03 30 73 07 77
Flour millingGérard MILLION (Director Damier Vert Service, Dijon Céréales Meunerie)03 80 69 21 09
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