Faced with a shortage of candidates, the cereal industry is taking charge

To recruit in the grain processing sector, the traditional providers of candidates, such as Ensmic or Aemic, are no longer sufficient in the face of the sector's lack of attractiveness. The whole sector is on the alert to remedy this.

The figures speak for themselves: while nearly 80 students graduated from Ensmic (École Nationale Supérieure de Meunerie et des Industries Céréalières) with a BTS in Cereal Industries at the end of the 1990s, there are now only a dozen students enrolled in the first year. The year 2021 was almost synonymous with the closure of the only BTS class in the cereal industry. This observation speaks volumes about the disaffection that the milling profession is experiencing and partly explains why the French milling sector is struggling to recruit. This situation is shared by the animal nutrition sector, and in fact affects all grain processors. Faced with this worrying situation, the sector – which has been rather passive until now – has decided to react, and in a new way, collectively. This double observation, which is self-perpetuating, with, on the one hand, a profound lack of knowledge of the grain processing professions and, on the other, their very limited attractiveness, is not new, but the year 2021 seems to be the year of collective awareness of the urgency to act. According to the ANMF, nearly 500 positions are in short supply in the milling sector, with a preponderance of positions for cylinder drivers and milling supervisors, for technicians and delivery drivers. 

After an initial announcement by the ANMF, which made this its battle horse for the coming years at its national convention in September in Bordeaux, the Aemic (Association of Former Students of the Mill and Cereal Industries) organised a round table during the JTIC (Technical Days of the Cereal Industries) last November entitled "Employment, training, career and attractiveness of the cereal industry". The beginning of a new era for the sector?

Communicate to get out of the shadows
If the general public has always identified the baker, for reasons of proximity, or the farmer who produces wheat upstream in the chain, knowledge of the miller, the essential link between these professionals, is less obvious. "For years, we've managed to get by. It's also our fault," admits Lionel Deloingce, president of the Paul Dupuis mill in Seine-Maritime and former president of the ANMF. "It is high time that this profession, which creates value, knowledge and expertise, was able to gain recognition," he says. For a long time, the ANMF has focused its communication on the fiini product, the baguette, leaving aside the flour and the milling profession itself. "We have been changing our way of communicating for some time now by insisting on flour, as a noble and essential product, and on the trade to bring it out of the shadows, by being more and more present on social networks in particular," explains Flavie Souply, technical and sustainability director at the ANMF. Short films have been broadcast on social networks, marking this shift towards the general public. And to optimise these projects, the organisation recruited a communications manager at the beginning of the year. "Jean-Fraçons Loiseau, president of the ANMF, has chosen to use a communications expert who will also work on behalf of the Syndicat des industriels de la nutrition animale, in line with the bridges that exist between this sector and the milling industry," explains Lionel Deloingce. A communication campaign for the general public is currently being developed for the milling industry.

"If we want an effective communication campaign in addition to the government's role, it must be carried out in the territories and by companies. This campaign must be ambitious", adds Lionel Deloingce. "Baguette bags, posters, videos, the media are numerous. It will depend on the budget allocated. But we will need all the players in the sector to be effective, because the budget is not bottomless."

Companies, keys to territorial communication
"If every miller could go to the neighbouring high schools to talk about the trade, with a presentation or a guide for that purpose, it would be a good start," proposed Karine Forest, director of Minoterie Forest, at the JTIC in November. Four months later, communication kits have been made available to many companies by the ANMF, among others, for this purpose. "The millers will be able to meet with high school students in particular, starting this summer," reports the miller, interviewed on 26 March at the Salon de l'Agriculture. Yann Foricher, manager of the COurneau mill, who attended the JTIC round table, agrees, pointing out the increased visibility of mills during the Covid-19 period. "We have seen a surprisingly large number of people coming to our mills, and we can see that the image of the miller is a good support," he said, insisting on the "heritage" dimension of the miller beyond the "transformer". "We could bring a territorial dimension to this type of event. There is a European mills day, we could take advantage of it", the miller proposed.

Boosting the numbers of Ensmic
"Every opportunity is good to talk about cereal processing jobs, and to say that training exists," says Patricia Darjo, director of Ensmic in Surgères. Among the promotional initiatives that the school is putting in place, the director announced to the JTIC a partnership with the GIE Petits Moulins de France in connection with the Euro-pain trade fair to be held at the end of March in Paris. The winners of the French cup of bakery-viennoiserie-pastry schools organised during this show will have the opportunity to spend a day in the Enilia-Ensmic school to perfect their knowledge in milling in particular. More recently, on the Intercéréales stand at the Salon de l'Agriculture, students took turns around a miniature (electric) mill presenting the stages of flour production in order to discover the secrets of the product's manufacture, the miller's profession and, of course, its dedicated school. Other initiatives are in the pipeline, such as a video for the YouTube channel "Jeviensbosserchezvous". Invited to speak as a representative of the State, Sophie Robio, head of policy and network coordination at the Nouvelle-Aquitaine Regional Office for the AFD, said that "secondary schools are keen to take very concrete action, but sometimes come up against very simple problems. For example, how do we move students? If we answer their questions, we can be listened to. In agricultural high schools, there is a public to be interested in because it is closer to the processing professions. Still in concrete terms, partnership operations could see the light of day, such as holding science classes in a mill. "The bricks are there", concludes the Draaf manager… All that remains is to build the edifice.

For more information about the roundtable discussion visit the website, HERE.