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Despite being one of Europe’s smaller countries in terms of land area, the Netherlands punches well above its weight in global agricultural and food trade. The logistical advantage provided by the Port of Rotterdam, its advanced food industry and strategic location at the heart of the European market have transformed the country into an important production, processing and distribution hub across the grain, flour, bread and pasta value chains. While Dutch wheat production can fluctuate significantly depending on weather conditions, the country’s milling and bakery industries stand out for their ability to transform imported raw materials into higher-value products.

Food safety and flour quality used to be discussed mainly in the language of audits, laboratory results and regulatory compliance. Those elements still matter, but they no longer describe the full commercial importance of the subject. For a modern mill, the ability to deliver safe, traceable and consistently performing flour affects customer retention, access to export markets, raw material choices and the cost of daily operations.

Changing consumer expectations in the bakery industry are driving the milling sector toward a new production paradigm. In today’s market, where every product category—from bread and pizza to croissants and industrial bakery products—requires different functional flour characteristics, competitiveness is no longer determined by production capacity alone. Instead, it is defined by technology, data management, artificial intelligence, skilled human resources and personalized quality management. Speaking at the IDMA Global Grain & Milling Forum, Erhan Özmen, Chairman of the Board of Özmen Flour, said that the future of milling will depend on how quickly the industry adapts to the transformation taking place across the bakery sector.

Welcoming more than 8,000 professional visitors from over 120 countries, IDMA Istanbul 2026 brought together the global grain, feed and food processing industries in Istanbul. Held at the Istanbul Expo Center, the exhibition hosted more than 200 brands and created a platform for thousands of B2B meetings, paving the way for nearly $1 billion in new trade and investment opportunities. Running alongside the exhibition, the IDMA Global Grain & Milling Forum added a strong strategic dimension to the event with discussions on food security, global grain trade, digitalization, artificial intelligence, storage, logistics and sustainability.

Africa’s second most populous nation, Ethiopia, is emerging as the continent’s rising grain powerhouse thanks to the remarkable leap it has achieved in wheat production in recent years.

The Istanbul Planning Agency (IPA) has published its Bread Consumption Habits Survey examining bread consumption dynamics and changing consumer preferences in the city.

The Artificial Intelligence Summit-AGI, held under the main sponsorship of Treomind, focused on a transformation that centers on value rather than just efficiency in the age of AI. The summit, where strategies guiding the transformation journeys of institutions, innovative applications, and ethical approaches were discussed comprehensively, addressed key topics shaping the future of the sector.

Speakers at Dubai’s World Grain and Pulses Forum 2026 described a well-supplied 2025/26 market with recovering trade, but warned that ample supply will intensify competition—shifting the real battle to execution amid freight and route risk, policy shocks and volatile demand.

Bread waste is a strategic issue that directly concerns the future of the bakery sector. Confronting this challenge is not merely a matter of environmental responsibility; it is equally a question of economic sustainability and competitiveness.

The United States is preparing to impose restrictions on Italian pasta similar to the quotas that Europe has enforced on Turkish pasta manufacturers for years. The new 92% tariff the U.S. plans to apply to Italian pasta could lead to price hikes on American retail shelves.

At AgroFoodSummit 2025 in Mersin, Areté’s Filippo Bertuzzi warned that while global durum supplies are recovering and prices are easing, a potential US tariff shock on Italian pasta could become the next disruptive force for the market.

Securitas Technology has released its 2026 Global Technology Trends Report. In an era where Artificial Intelligence (AI), cloud computing, and smart sensors are accelerating transformation, the “new normal” in security is being redefined.