Better appearance and taste of rice, thanks to milling upgrade

The Philippines is one of the largest rice producers in the world, yet competition in the region is great.

La Suerte Rice Mill Corporation, one of the country’s respected millers, is always looking to new technologies to improve production. Recently the company and its partner, the Bühler Group have agreed on a complete upgrade of milling equipment.

Located in Isabela province in the north of the Philippines, La Suerte now operates a 10-12 tonne per hour (tph) rice whitening line, together with a 20tph rice hulling line that was set up by Bühler in 2013 and SORTEX optical sorting technology in 2009.

Top husk huller and husk separator (Photo: Bühler)

The company invested in Bühler’s TopWhite™ rice whitener after seeing the quality of its output as compared to the yield from its existing machine. The new machine produced 2-3% more head rice and lesser breakage.

According to CEO and president, Ricardo P. Tan, the machinery has enhanced the appearance and taste of the rice, and as direct result sales have increased within a short period of time. “Bühler’s highly impressive technology has provided us with the all-important competitive advantage we need, to take the leading position in our industry. Our return on investment has already been fantastic and we’re delighted with the result,” he said.

Gravity paddy separator (Photo: Bühler)

The company further invested in a Bühler optical sorting technology for identifying and separating defective and foreign items from the product stream by color, shape or other optical properties. While the rice milling and dehulling machines helps increase the mill’s paddy input to 20tph.

Further to these, the company will install a de-stoner which removes high-density impurities including metal, glass and stones; a huller and separator;  grading solutions to classify rice by kernel size, as well as optical sorting solutions to deliver rice with a smooth, dust free and shiny surface. The company receives ongoing 24/7 Bühler service, with localized support.

La Suerte is just one of many rice companies in South East Asia that is currently adopting Bühler's technologies.

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