The secretary general of Spain's bakery confederation has been elected as head of the International Union of Bakers and Baker-Confectioners. Writer David Ing had a chat to the man about his plans...

The headquarters of the International Union of Bakers and Baker-Confectioners (UIB) is moving to Madrid at the start of the new year, following the appointment of the first ever Spaniard to run the organisation.
José María Fernández del Vallado, who is already Secretary General of the Spanish Confederation of Bakery Organisations (CEOPAN), will also take on the management role at the UIB after receiving unanimous backing from the international organisation's annual congress in Sao Paolo in October.
The switch in HQ has become a natural process for the union, which originally had a fixed base in Paris but has since moved each decade with a change of secretary general, first to Germany, then to Switzerland and now to Spain.
Speaking at his offices in central Madrid, Mr Fernández del Vallado told European Baker that the congress in Brazil saw the adoption of several changes in the running of an organisation that currently represents around 350,000 companies employing almost five million people.
From now on the congress will switch from being held every two years to an annual event. The German city of Dusseldorf will be the host city in 2009 and Poznan, Poland in 2010.
And while the UIB has fallen into the pattern of switching secretary general and its headquarters each 10 years, in future the post he now holds will come up for re-election every five years.
Vallado sees one of his main tasks as expanding the global coverage of the union which, although over the years has included countries from all continents, is currently made up of around 30 associations representing ‘craft bakers,' virtually all of them from Europe and the Americas.
Among the current ‘heavyweight' members are Brazil, France, Poland, Germany, Mexico, Russia and the United States.
But another 15 have already been approached by his predecessor as Secretary General, Renaldo Nanzer, and former UIB president Bert Kolkman, which Vallado hopes will join up in the near future.
These would take the union firmly back into Asia with China, Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea and the Philippines; into Africa with South Africa, the Congo and Morocco; and further strengthen the traditional European foothold with the United Kingdom, Belgium, Slovenia, Slovakia, the Czech republic, Estonia, and Croatia.
"It's not an immediate process. They will begin as observers and then hopefully start joining up over the coming years," Vallado says.
"One thing our new president Peter Becker is looking for is to speed up the membership process."
Another of his main goals will be to further promote the global consumption of bread in collaboration with international organisations such as the World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations.
FAO's World Food Day - 16 October - which was established to highlight the plight of almost one billion undernourished people worldwide has also been designated as World Bread Day since 2003.
He hopes it won't be long before bread becomes one of the staple foods that is honoured each year on World Food Day.
On a more practical level, Vallado sees the UIB's task as aiding a very traditional industry in adapting to an ever-changing market.
With the bakery sector now seeing its products sold ‘in all sorts of places', it needs now to look carefully at the demands of consumers, especially in the Mediterranean countries, where people still call for their daily bread.
In some member countries, he acknowledges, there is ‘much sensitivity' over how the bread is produced, with some purists not recognizing the use of frozen or pre-cooked dough, let alone the loaves that leave industrial bakeries.
But, on his home patch, he has learnt to be a pragmatist.
"In Spain, we have learnt to work together with the industrial bakers, especially when it comes to lobbying government."
He also understands the reasoning behind the wider use of pre-prepared dough, especially in towns such as seaside resorts, which can suddenly see the prospects of a peak holiday weekend turn rapidly stale with a brusque change in the weather.
"One of the big advantages of the UIB is that we can share experiences and information among each other.
"It is an interchange that helps us find solutions to our problems."
The differences between member countries are also highlighted in the number and variety of product lines.
"In Latin America bakers' shops tend to be much more like supermarkets than what we are used to in Europe.
"In Mexico, for instance, you can sometimes find more than 1,000 product lines and that the place is self-service," he says.
Training is another area where Vallado hopes to strengthen ties between member associations.
One of the UIB's current objectives is to create an international certificate that would make it easier for bakers to move from one country to another.
He acknowledges that in some European countries, like Spain, the industry is now fighting to maintain traditional bread sales stables following the long fall off in demand over the past 40 years.
But, in countries like Japan and China where consumption is on the rise, ‘there are many people who want to come to Europe to learn the trade'.
"We want to give the profession more prestige, and at the same time make it more attractive for people to work in," he says, pointing to how chefs have moved out of the kitchens and become international celebrities.
"After all, bread is an ancient product and a food that has much significance in our daily life. In Spain there are more than 300 popular refrains in which there is a reference to bread."
More prestige for the job could also help save many small, family bakeries from disappearing as the parents retire. "Many in the older generation are asking the question ‘Why keep investing', when their sons and daughters don't want to continue with the business."
These same bakeries are also facing increasing liquidity problems in the current financial climate at a time when they need to invest to keep up with the market.
Mr Fernández del Vallado is clear.
"Many companies are likely to disappear because there is nobody to take over or they cannot compete.
"It's not alarming yet.
"But some, especially in the Mediterranean countries, are becoming worried."