SCHOOL KIDS IN HONDURAS ARE BENEFITTING FROM HERMETIC STORAGE

SCHOOL KIDS IN HONDURAS ARE BENEFITTING FROM HERMETIC STORAGE

Children in the village of Krausirpi in Honduras are benefitting from rice that was not treated with any harmful chemicals thanks to Ultra Hermetic™ and patented GrainPro® Cocoons™. The Cocoons were delivered on March 2017 and are currently protecting food crops against insects and fungal growth. 

The United Nations’ World Food Programme partnered with GrainPro to store rice as part of a feeding program aimed at local school children. The Cocoons were delivered to the beautiful La Moskitia region – a large wetlands area in Honduras considered by many as the “Amazon” of Central America – using dugout canoes. 

Preserving highly nutritious stocks of staple grains is a serious problem for the locals due to it’s location and the atmospheric conditions in the region. To safely preserve the shelf life and protect staple crops against infestation and fungal contamination, new storage methods – such as the Cocoon – are immediately needed to make an immediate impact.

The Cocoon is a hermetic storage container that comes in various capacities of 5MT to 1050MT. It is made from flexible polyvinyl chloride (PVC) with gastight and watertight properties to prevent the exchange of air and moisture. It effectively preserves and extends the shelf life of dried agricultural commodities using inert gases such as carbon dioxide to kill all insects. This means that the stored food crops won’t have any residues of harmful chemical fumigants. 

MELANESIAN ISLAND EXPLORES SUN DRYING AND ULTRA HERMETIC™ STORAGE

MELANESIAN ISLAND EXPLORES SUN DRYING AND ULTRA HERMETIC™ STORAGE

New Caledonia, a Melanesian island in the Pacific, is getting much needed help to safely dry and store locally produced food crops as it attempts to invigorate the agricultural sector. Tom de Bruin, President of GrainPro® Philippines, recently visited the area to train government personnel in the use of innovative sun dryers and Ultra Hermetic™ storage solutions.   

The island chain in the Pacific Ocean has big hopes of achieving food and agricultural independence. Called the “Heart of the Pacific”, this French territory is known for its rich deposits of nickel, which play a crucial role in the international nickel trade. 

Food sufficiency is a common challenge among small island countries. Their isolation requires them to be self-sufficient, but the lack of resources make it difficult to achieve this. 

Despite its status as a major economy among the many island countries in the Pacific, it is very dependent on imports to feed an estimated population of 670,000. For example, rice, the staple food of the islands, is imported from Thailand and nearby Australia. An estimated 6000 tons of brown rice are imported each year with only one mill to process everything.

To turn things around, the French government assigned the Agence de Développement Economique de la Nouvelle-Calédonie (New Caledonia Economic Development Agency) or ADECAL to diversify the islands’ agricultural resources. ADECAL is currently developing the rice seed business to provide local farms with acclimatized rice seeds that fit the islands’ tropical climate.

GrainPro is working with ADECAL to test innovative postharvest solutions to safely dry and store rice seeds. Using Solar Bubble Dryers™, harvested seeds at 22 to 17 percent moisture content are dried down to a safe 12 percent. The seeds are then stored in SuperGrainbags® and Cocoons™ to ensure optimal storage conditions and good germination. New Caledonia is now planning to use the Cocoons to store consumption paddy in the next harvest season.

Food sufficiency is a common challenge among small island countries. Their isolation requires them to be self-sufficient, but the lack of resources make it difficult to achieve this. Whether grown locally or imported, dry agricultural commodities can rely on GrainPro’s line of Ultra Hermetic storage solutions and innovative sun dryers to safely preserve quality and quantity of seeds and dry agricultural commodities without using harmful chemical fumigants.

COMMITMENT TO QUALITY INSPIRES GRAINPRO® TQM STRATEGY

COMMITMENT TO QUALITY INSPIRES GRAINPRO® TQM STRATEGY

Quality is extremely crucial in delivering satisfaction to customers and retaining their loyalty. This understanding is GrainPro’s® driving force in constantly improving its processes to ensure the delivery of top quality postharvest solutions, which led to the official implementation of its Total Quality Management (TQM) program on May 2, 2017 at its plant in Subic Bay, Philippines.

Having been in preparations since 2016, GrainPro’s TQM strategy will involve all the areas of production to check and evaluate all phases of the production process. By getting everyone involved and accountable, problems and defects will be immediately discovered and corrected before products reach completion. Additionally, employees will have a direct hand in improving processes that directly affect their work.

TQM aims to deliver customer satisfaction through a management approach that involves all members of an organization in the continual improvement of all processes, products, and services. It uses strategy, data, and effective communications to integrate the quality discipline into the culture and activities of the organization. This is an integrated, process-centered and fully involved strategy that pushes quality to create a quality-focused working culture within the organization.

Data on performance measures are necessary to determine how well an organization is performing. TQM encourages fact-based decision making among managers by constantly collecting and analyzing data to improve decision making accuracy.

“Collaboration plays an important role in achieving our TQM strategy,” says Hazel Valera, Supply Chain Manager, who was a driving force in embracing a culture focused on delivering quality. GrainPro has a longstanding commitment to quality and holds an ISO 9001:2008 certification since July 2008. The company is currently working on getting its ISO 9001:2015 certification. “We believe that this will transcend our operations, streamline and improve our process efficiency, and guarantee the timely and defects-free delivery of our products.”