Biotech Farms, Philippines
Biotech Farms agricultural complex can receive up to 600 tons of paddy per day from local farmers from the Philippines region XII. Wet paddy is consecutively cleaned, dried and processed into clean rice.
Incoming wet paddy is transported to the Biotech Farms by trucks where it is deposited into intake pits. The paddy is then sent by conveyors for a first round of pre-cleaning and then stored in temporary bins.
The wet paddy is transfered to a 3-phase continuous drying line to bring down the moisture. For specific varieties available in smaller batches, Biotech Farms is also installing a batch drying line from Bühler which will be commissioned later in 2019. Upon reaching an optimal moisture level, the paddy is then chilled and stored in large 2,000t bins, waiting to be sent to the rice mill.
Connected to the silos through conveyors, Biotech operates a 20t/h rice mill, equipped with Bühler technology at every stage: from intake, to cleaning, polishing, whitening, grading and bagging. The mill features a 2-pass optical sorting system. The first pass removes color defects while the second pass rejects chalky rice from the main white rice output.
The rice mill has been built with a special focus on hygienic design and food safety. The mill layout is clearly zoned in order to separate process areas. Areas with high dust concentration (bran, bagging) are separated from areas with low dust concentration (production, packing). The office area is also clearly separated. A visitor walkway has also been set up to allow visitors to pass through the floors without disrupting or contaminating production.
Next to the rice mill, Biotech Farms built a reprocessing mill, which aims to improve and add value to the milled rice of local farmers.
The white rice processing lines end with automatic bagging lines, also by Bühler. The final product is then put onto trucks and sent across the island to be sold through a network of malls, rice wholesalers and retailers.
Bühler's equipment reliability combined with their attentive customer service help us maintain high-level yields and quality, resulting in rice that our customers will enjoy eating and buying again.
Erwin Saballa,
Chief Operating Officer, Biotech Farms Inc., Philippines
Gupfenstrasse 5
Uzwil
9240
Switzerland
