CBH Grower Study Tour: West Australian farmers awed by ‘mind-blowing’ Bogasari flour mill

The phrase “mind-blowing” was uttered by more than a few farmers during a recent visit to the world’s biggest flour mill, with nearly 40 WA growers left stunned after touring Bogasari’s Jakarta factory. The group toured the mill — the world’s largest in terms of both milling capacity and physical size — as part of this year’s CBH Grower Study Tour, with many citing it as a highlight. Among them was Bindi Bindi grower Natham Turner, who described the vast compound as the “most impressive” operation he had ever seen. “To see the scale of what’s going on there and how much of our grain they’re going through was mind-blowing,” he said. “They’ve even got their own on-site port and their own fleet of ships (for importing grain).” For Hyden grower Tyron Utley, Bogasari left “the biggest impression”. “Just the sheer volume that they process was quite impressive,” he said. “It was phenomenal. . . and it’s hard to comprehend those sort of numbers.” Bogasari’s Jakarta mill boasts 15 milling lines with the capacity to produce 11,650 tonnes of flour a day and more than 4 million tonnes annually. Australia is Bogasari’s primary supplier of wheat followed by the US, Canada and Black Sea countries. Founded in 1971, Bogasari operates as a subsidiary of Indofood, supplying the company with the flour needed to produce about 16 billion packets of instant noodles a year, among a vast array of other food products. Bogasari employs about 2500 people, though its plants are highly automated, with all packaging done by robots. CBH head of accumulations Trevor Lucas said Bogasari was “absolutely critical” to the prosperity of both CBH as a grain handler, and the Australian wheat industry at large. “Any company that commands almost 50 per cent of total wheat flour for food demand into Indonesia is a major, major deal,” he said. “So we have to listen to them, we have to collaborate with them. . . everybody needs to work with them to make sure that we’re not only supplying today, but developing for their future needs, which are obviously going to change.” Indofood president commissioner Frankie Welirang said Australian wheat was always favoured for its high quality and stringent standards. But he admitted Bogasari was happy to substitute it for “filler” when the price was right. “From Bogasari’s point of view, all the other (non-Australian wheat) is a filler, so we mix with the Australian to get the competitive price,” Mr Welirang said. He said wheat from countries with lax quality controls, such as India, was Bogasari’s “last choice” because it was often riddled with stone, plastic and steel contaminants. “It’s very important to us — the first choice to us would be Australian wheat,” he said. “It’s five days (shipping time) to Indonesia from Western Australia. . . so there is an advantage to us on freight and interest costs. “If it’s come from Brazil or Argentina, it’s a long way — it takes 21 to 28 days to Indonesia. . . and it costs a lot of money. “The number one choice for us would be Australia, (but) the key is how much Australia is putting up the prices.”