Over the next ten days, Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster, Ron Hays, is touring the country of Israel with Class XX of the Oklahoma Ag Leadership Program, looking at all forms of agriculture in the country. After visiting the OALP, one of the most prominent wheat flour mills in Israel, Hays had the chance to visit with Omer Thon, director of operations at the Stybel Flour Mill in Ad Halom.
Thon is a fourth-generation family member to work in his family’s business, which was started in the 1930s by his great-grandfather and has been modernized over the years as it has become a major producer of dozens of types of flour.
“We are a family-owned business ever since 1935,” Thon said. “We operate five milling sites and two grain storage sites. We do traditional milling of wheat flour, spelt, rye and also other grains.”
Anything that can be made into flour, Thon said, can be milled at Stybel Flour Mill.
“Afterwards, we use it for bakeries,” Thon said. “We send it off to bakeries, industrial users, household applications and pretty much any request on the flour market.
Thon’s great-grandfather, Ze’ve Stybel, first came from Germany as a taxi driver, Thon said, and later on, shifted professions and became an importer of flour, then a miller. In the late 1950s and early 60s, Thon said his grandfather joined the business.
“He is actually not from the original family,” Thon said. “He fell in love with the miller’s daughter, like the story goes, and he was a very skillful person, he was very qualified with electricity and mechanical works, and he just fell in love not only with the miller’s daughter, but with the business itself.”
Thon said his mother and her two brothers joined the business when it was time, and now he and his sister play an important role.
“We have around ten to 15 percent on a regular year coming in from Israel-grown wheat,” Thon said. “It is a very good wheat; however, it is mixed, so we don’t get a constant quality, and we cannot trade directly with the growers of the wheat. There is a certain organization that collects all the wheat, blends it into certain characteristics, and then lets us use it.”
The remaining wheat comes mostly from Europe, Thon said. In the past, some wheat was sourced from Ukraine and Russia, he added, but that is more challenging now because of the war.
“Also, from the U.S. and Canada, but due to prices, it is less likely nowadays to find U.S. wheat in Israel,” Thon said.
For most of the production, Thon said semi-hard and hard wheat varieties are used.
“We do certain blends to get the right flour, because there is no bad flour, there is just flour that doesn’t fit the cause,” Thon said.
There is good competition in Israel as far as wheat milling is concerned, Thon said, and there is a lot of imported flour that comes in from Europe and cheap flour from Ukraine and Turkey, which creates challenges.
“We are always thinking about the hard red winter (wheat),” Thon said. “It is a very good milling wheat. We hope that shipping conditions and commercial conditions allow the use later on and will be very, very pleased to have some of it into our blend.”
Regarding the war in Russia and Ukraine creating difficulties for sourcing wheat, Thon said problems with insurance and shipping have been the biggest concern.
“There is a factor that I, personally, feel and think that many of the companies operating out of the Black Sea origination of wheat were U.S. business somehow,” Thon said. “There is less and less trade of the Black Sea, and it is harder to come by proper Black Sea wheat.”
When wheat cannot come through the Black Sea, Thon said, it is sourced from other locations at a higher price which changes the nutritional value chain.
