“Asian countries are the most interested in our products. Korea, japan, Thailand and Malesia are the primary countries that we export.  But we also have quite a good market in the USA. We can add the European countries like Germany and France in our export area. Of course our target is to expand also, for example, in other African countries where we are already present.” Granoro is one of companies which have been producing pasta for nearly half century. The founder of the company, Attilio Mastromauro who passed away last year at the age of 102 completely dedicated his life to his company and made it a successful pasta producer. His policy of quality with a right price is now among the main principles of the company. Producing 400 tons per day, the company addresses 45 percent of its production to Italian market and 55 percent to exports. Growing especially in exports in the last 20 years, the company is planning to increase its success in the following years. Exports Manager Amalia Malcangi answered BBM Magazine’s questions in Gustus Exhibition in Italy. Ms. Malcangi, Could you please give us some information about your company? What can you say about your works and production? First of all, let me thank you for this opportunity because it is always nice to let the world know about us. Regarding our company, Granoro was founded in 1967 by Mr. Attilio Mastromauro. Unfortunately our company’s founder passed away last summer at the age of 102. His life was completely dedicated to this company. In fact, from the very beginning, he has always focused his attention on quality; quality with a right price. So we cannot be considered a Premium company but we are just a producer of good quality pasta at a right price. We have three long production lines and 9 short cut production lines. We have a very big warehouse where we can store even 17 thousand pallets. We use Italian technology in our plants. We particularly have been dealing with Fava Company for so long. At the very beginning we were concentrated to only Italian market. However, in the last 20 years we have focused our attention also to foreign countries to export and we started to export foreign countries. Nowadays we are able to produce even 400 tons per day. Actually our volumes are addressed 45 percent to Italian market and 55 percent to exports; so we have grown a lot in the exports. Actually, it’s good to know we are more and more appreciated in the world. Do you only produce pasta? Yes, our production plant is only for pasta. We are located only in the very South of Italy, Corato, near Bari because we want to care about all the steps of the production. We do not have more production sites in the world like other competitors do because we want to control every step of our production. From the very beginning till the end, we want to focus on quality and follow all the steps of the production. You told that more than 50 percent you export your products to outside of Italy. Which countries you export your products or which countries you are aiming to export? Asian countries are the most interested in our products. Korea, japan, Thailand and Malesia are the primary countries that we export. But we also have quite a good market in the USA. We can add the European countries like Germany and France in our export area. Of course our target is to expand also, for example, in other African countries where we are already present. For example we are number one in South Africa. We sell a lot of pasta in South Africa and we are very popular there. We hope to extend our sales in some other African countries because African people really appreciate this kind of food. But of course in some regions in poor condition, so they may not be able to buy quality pasta. But my hope and our intention are to let these people understand what the difference is, and maybe have the possibility to buy Italian products. There is difference in the end. One needs a good raw material source to make pasta production, especially for quality pasta production. In other words, you need quality durum wheat. How do you meet this requirement? Our production plant is in a town which is also the town of one of the biggest wheat players in the world, The Molino Casillo Company. As we are just in the same town with our wheat supplier we do not have the necessity to have a mill like other competitors. We buy the raw material with desired amount and desired quality through our supplier. No matter if the supplier produces semolina buying wheat from Australia, Canada and Italy and mixing them. So it’s not our problem; we just buy a certified raw material and then we manufacture, it is always the same. Could you tell us what is the difference between your products and your competitors’ products? What causes your company to stand out among them? I think that you can certainly feel and smell the flavor of good raw material in Granoro Pasta. This is first point. When you cook Granoro Pasta you can smell a nice flavor of wheat. This is because we just have a lot of checks before accepting the raw materials. Raw material is very important as you mentioned above. It is so important that for example the final product has got a brilliant yellow color. So this brilliant yellow color means that we have used very good wheat and nice semolina. This makes Granoro famous in the world. It is due to our recipe, technical strategy or something that our technical staff is able to do. Also water is important; we use the tap water. But water is coming from near our region which is very good so all these things make good pasta. Ms. Malcangi, you know that there is common misconception that pasta makes you gain weight. Today many people believe that pasta makes you overweight. Could you tell us your idea about this misconception and could you tell us how to prepare pasta as a healthy meal? Of course, it is not true that pasta makes people fat because otherwise all Italian people would be overweight. What makes pasta becoming fat food is what you put together with pasta; so the condiments, the sauces. If you have fatty pasta with rich ingredients then maybe you should try vegetables or related sauces with pasta. But if you have simple Mediterranean recipe pasta is not at all a food which makes you fat. People have to take the right intake of calories of course. If you are a sportsman probably you can have more but if you are in an office and if you are not moving a lot then you should be able to eat your daily portion which should not be more than 70-80 grams. For example my son who is a young boy of fifteen, he is incredibly eager of pasta. Although he can load really big volumes he is completely thin because he is young and probably he is moving or his metabolism is okay. So it is personal. Could you tell us how to cook very good pasta? The cooking of pasta really depends on your personal taste. We know that Italians prefer to eat pasta a little bit hard. For example I do not read the cooking time, I just taste. I think it should be decided by tasting while cooking. My opinion is that you should not see the white rolls inside. When the white rolls are not seen any more, it means the pasta is well cooked. As I mentioned above, this really depends on consumers and their personal tastes. Finally, could you tell us about your targets in the market? I think that in order to compete with so many producers, we should stick to our high quality standards and products. For example, our dedicated pasta brand which got a trademark from Italian region Puglia (Apulia) where we live. The 100 percent traceability of our brand which got its trademark as 100 percent quality product comes from Puglia. We do everything from durum wheat to the final product in this particular area. For this, we have got a trademark. For some people it is very important to know where you have produced pasta and where you have cultivated wheat.