Challenging times

The last flour mills are fighting for survival

The Carinthian mill has created a second mainstay.

(Bild: Kärntner Mühle )

The baking industry is causing local mill operators to tremble. Because cheap flour is more in demand than ever and the grain producers' plants are almost at a standstill. But Carinthia's millers also have other problems to contend with ...

Carinthia's grain mills are at a standstill - for the most part at least. This is because flour producers are underutilized and have hardly any work left. "We're talking about 50 percent less capacity utilization. We could actually produce three times as much," says Mathias Trattner from Trattner Mühle in Mühldorf, drawing attention to the problem and looking at his colleagues: "More and more people are thinking about quitting because it's simply no longer profitable." The reason for this is that there are fewer and fewer bakers.