Customer testimonial
Delivering high quality Vietnamese rice. SORTEX S UltraVision™, quality assessing 20 million rice kernels per minute. Turning 400 tonnes per day of wet paddy into, high value, bagged rice for export
Digital Technologies 335.12.2017
Rice is the most important staple food in Vietnam. The country ranks among the top 5 rice consuming countries in the world. However, recently it has also become an important exporter owing to the recent improvements in rice quality. It all starts with the rice cultivation in Mekong delta. The Mekong delta is also known as Vietnam’s rice bowl. The region is the largest area inwhich this staple food is grown in Vietnam; it is the southern breadbasket ofthe country with 25 million tonnes harvested here every year. More than 1.6 million rice farmers cultivate Vietnam’s fields, 70 % of the country’s population work in agriculture. Despite this scale, the quality of rice processing was not the best in the world until recently. Phung Hoang has been a pioneer in the rice processing industry to change the perception of Vietnam’s rice quality in the international trade markets.
Hồng Thị Bίch Tuyền, CEO of Phung Hoang Rice, is on a mission to enhance the world’s perception of Vietnamese rice quality – and to convince global customers that by using trusted Bühler technology, her company can consistently deliver top quality rice. "I want Vietnam to produce the best rice in the world," she says. “But the image of the rice exported is not what it should be, mainly because of outdated technology, which doesn’t take food safety needs into account and doesn’t allow rice producers to control their mills to achieve the highest efficiency and the best, consistent rice quality.”
Rice quality can vary drastically depending on the methods and machines used to process it. Phung Hoang Rice needed to find reliable, high quality processing technology, that could ensure they retained the high-quality of Vietnam’s rice varieties.
Having already reaped the benefits of Bühler technology in its previous rice plants, Phung Hoang decided for its third and newest plant to invest in a fully-automated, energy-efficient, 24/7 Bühler solution - capable of handling 400 tonnes per day of wet paddy and turning it into, high value, bagged rice for export. The turnkey plant included four SORTEX S UltraVision™ sorters, which can optically assess each rice kernel for discolouration or damage at a rate of 20 million kernels per minute. Contaminated kernels are systematically removed from the food chain, guaranteeing the highest possible food safety standards. This plant has enabled them to increase their total daily production to 1,200 tonnes of premium quality, ‘Phung Hoang’ branded rice and they are now able to export to customers in Europe and the Middle East.
I was very impressed with the Bühler team. They worked hard and completed the installation to an excellent standard. As a result of the remarkable results, we have been able to meet a quality level unknown until now in Vietnam. From the very first day of our collaboration, Bühler always delivered what it promised.
Hồng Thị Bίch Tuyền,
CEO of Phung Hoang Rice Vietnam
Gupfenstrasse 5
Uzwil
9240
Switzerland
