FOR LILO FRUITS, QUALITY PRESERVATION A REALITY THROUGH HERMETIC BAGS

LILO Fruits is not your typical fruit trading company. Based in Costa Rica, owners Kris Carvajal and Junior Quesada are passionate about employing innovative and improved ways to protect the quality of their organically-grown products. Their obsession gained the trust and confidence of their customers, both locally and abroad. One of the ways they safely preserve their coffee and turmeric, is by packing them in GrainPro® SuperGrainbags® (SGB) -- an Ultra Hermetic™ liner with super low permeability to air and moisture.

The company grows organically different types of foodcrops at their Finca Lilo de Biolley, situated inside the largest rainforest park in Central America. The beautiful and lush location is perfect for growing various food crops that include various fruits-bearing trees such as lime, graviola, rambutan, banana, and coffee, and spices such as black pepper and their prized turmeric.

“LILO Fruits strives to inspire our buyers and our communities to lead an active, healthy lifestyle by offering simple and convenient options that are always fresh, safe and healthy,” explains Jennifer Long, a partner and spokesperson. Their commitment to their customers, farmers and the communities they belong to motivates them to utilize bio-intensive, bio-dynamic and permaculture techniques to ensure that they have the best, healthiest, cleanest, and the freshest offerings.

However, protecting their organically-grown commodities against insects and fungal growth is a major cause of concern. This is when LILO Fruits began using SGBs.

Other similar companies would’ve resorted to chemical fumigation. A common problem among companies that promote organically-grown commodities is that they employ inorganic measures along their production processes. Chemicals tend to kill adult insects, but leave eggs to develop and do damage later. Additionally, chemical residues are left on the commodities, which are eventually ingested by consumers. These are some of the reasons why international regulations are implementing tighter policies on the use of chemical fumigants on food crops.

The SuperGrainbag is just one of many Ultra Hermetic solutions developed by GrainPro. It’s an affordable liner bag designed to protect dried agricultural commodities against infestation and mold growth, while preserving freshness and aromatic qualities for more than a year. What’s more is that using the SGB can kill all insects, including their eggs, without chemical fumigation.

“We’ve had positive results from using the GrainPro bags (SGB) in shipping roasted coffee and powdered turmeric,” says Long. She described that they store the commodities in double layered SGBs for added protection. “I am happy that the bags organically control insects without any chemical residues. GrainPro truly pleases us!”

The combination of the quality of their products’ and their handling make them stand out in the market. They have big plans ahead, too. Organic medicinal food products made of raw materials grown from the region are already in the works.

It’s all about quality. Through Ultra Hermetic storage, LILO Fruits has a sustainable way to safely preserve quality without putting in chemicals that could harm those they serve their products to. The future is looking bright for LILO Fruits.

WINNING THE WAR AGAINST STALE, MOLDY FLAVORED SPECIALTY COFFEE

When it comes to coffee, flavor is king. 

Roasters around the world pay huge sums to purchase single-origin varieties that yield distinct flavor and aromatic characters. Their customers also pay a premium for a sip. Often, however, the subtle differences and undertones are lost by the time the coffee arrives at the shop. This leaves a bad taste to both roasters and customers.

Many consumers seeking high-quality coffee have acquired a taste for this kind of coffee. The majority of top-rated quality restaurants in the US actually cater to the acquired taste of deadened generic woodiness coated with dark-roasted caramel and carbon flavoring.  From a business standpoint, this is the profitable course of actions. After all, consumers won’t know the difference.

With the high demand for coffee, the ability to protect both quality and quantity is allowing everyone to experience coffee at its primeval, and uncontaminated state. 

Coffee doesn’t just magically teleport itself from the farm to your cup. It takes a long time for coffee from remote villages in Asia, Africa or Latin America to arrive in the US. For example, bags of coffee from Guatemala that are shipped out to specialty coffee houses in Australia and Asia take months to arrive, often spending long layovers at Middle Eastern seaports.

But that’s only half the story. 

Coffee is traditionally packed in burlap or jute bags, and it doesn’t take long for the beans to absorb the undesirable  taste of these bags. By the time the bags reach their destination, they may be infested, caked with molds, and have developed an moldy taste from the long exposure to the jute bags.

George Howell, a pioneer of the specialty-coffee movement in the US in the early 1970’s and a recipient of the Specialty Coffee Association of America Lifetime Achievement Award, sums it all up: 

“Green coffee is shipped and stored in woven jute or sisal bags, which have been coated with petroleum-based batching oils to increase fiber yield and facilitate the spinning process. Green coffee is traditionally kept in these bags for the year or more it takes to go through them (fine coffee is harvested once a year). And so, the green coffee devolved – exposed to oxygen, changes in the environment and to the bags themselves.”

Howell recommends packing coffee beans in hermetically sealed bags to prevent the evaporation of the aromatic oils that give it its unique aroma and flavor. Second, it prevents coffee from coming into contact with the jute bags, thus, preventing coffee from absorbing the foul odors caught in the bags. Finally, hermetically-sealed bag protects the beans against the exchange of air and moisture to stop infestation and fungal contamination.

It was a losing battle until the coffee industry came to discover Ultra Hermetic™ liner bags. This simple innovation, which was initially developed in 2002, has helped protect both quality and quantity of coffee all over the world. In fact, the patented GrainPro® SuperGrainbag® (SGB), a pioneering force in Ultra Hermetic storage technology, has become synonymous to the safe preservation of coffee. The SGB allowed coffee to arrive direct from the farms in pristine condition to allow drinkers around the world to experience the distinct aromas and flavors that the farmers cultivated.

“In coffee growing areas prone to weather volatility, parchment storage in GrainPro bags is critical to maintaining quality,” explained Caravela Coffee – an international coffee trader with offices in the US, UK and Australia. “Without this extra layer, green beans can re-humidify, undoing the stability achieved in the drying process, thereby reducing the coffee’s shelf life.”

Meanwhile, in Australia, Dominic Majdandzic of White Horse Coffee in Sydney went as far as saying that the SGB is thegreatest advancement in coffee. “These humble bags not only maintain the freshness and integrity of the coffee, they also increase the longevity of coffee by up to four times,” revealed Dominic in his blog article.

The SGB is also a good solution for the safe and chemical-free preservation of other staple food grains and seeds, and high-value commodities. These bags are widely used for rice from Southeast Asia, spices from India, maize from Africa, and cacao from the Latin Americas. 

With the high demand for coffee, the ability to protect both quality and quantity is allowing everyone to experience coffee at its primeval, and uncontaminated state. Ultra Hermetic liner bags such as the GrainPro SGB are leading the way in a winning war against undesirable and baggy flavors, ultimately, to the benefit of everyone who loves coffee.

SuperGrainbag®: Strengthening the Value Chain of Rice in India

Maharashtra Agricultural Competitiveness Project (MACP), with a mandate to strengthen its implementation arm, the Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA) in the state of Maharashtra, took the initiative to ensure that its objectives of increasing productivity, profitability and market access of farming community is being effectively implemented by ATMA.

As part of its efforts to help raise the local agricultural commodity, the MACP organized a day-long conference on post harvest technologies and handed out GrainPro SuperGrainbags (SGBs), which is seen as an immediate storage solution.

they lose up to 20% of their yields due to pests and rodents that eat and contaminate their grains

416 SGBs with a capacity of 50 kilos each were handed out to smallholder farmers who took part in demonstrations in the region to store paddy and other grain yields. High yielding rice seed varieties and nutrients were also handed out as part of the program.

Hanumant Kisan Ghadage and his wife Maya, progressive farmers from Maushi village in Patan Taluka, took 10 bags for storage of paddy and other grains. Before using the SGBs, they reported that they lose up to 20% of their yields due to pests and rodents that eat and contaminate their grains.

After attending the Ultra Hermetic training provided by Pest Control of India (PCI) and GrainPro, he believes that storing his surplus produce in the SGBs will safely preserve the quality and reduce potential losses.

For more about GrainPro, please visit our official website at www.grainpro.com, or check us out on Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. Please use the hashtag #storingthefuture to discuss Ultra Hermetic™ solutions in social media.

Video: Rick and Jaja Save the Date Video January 2017

This is the first save a date video I ever made and it's for my friends Rick and Ja back in January. The couple asked me to do their invitation video back in November and after a couple of delays, we pushed through with a filming early this year. This is what came out of it.

Story, Camera, Direction, Post-production, Editing - Me

Location - SBMA, Philippines

Equipment - Nikon D3300

 

Rick and Jaja Save the Date

This is the first save a date video I ever made and it's for my friends Rick and Ja back in January. The couple asked me to do their invitation video back in November and after a couple of delays, we pushed through with a filming early this year. This is what came out of it.

Story, Camera, Direction, Post-production, Editing - Me

Location - SBMA, Philippines

Equipment - Nikon D3300

PRESS RELEASE: Africa Strategic Grain Reserves Conference

Nairobi, Kenya – Some of the brightest minds in food security are coming together on 14-15 June 2016 to participate at the first Africa Strategic Grain Reserve Conference to be held in Nairobi at the Intercontinental Hotel. The event aims to break the cycle of hunger and poverty in developing nations by reinforcing the role of strategic grain reserves through innovative and affordable safe storage systems and solutions.

The 2016 first Africa Strategic Grain Reserve Conference is an opportunity to discuss large-scale storage and national grain reserves from the perspective of users, experts, and policy makers in the field, and introduce innovative storage strategies and solutions to strengthen Africa’s food security and food safety. The prevalence and growth of aflatoxin in stored grain continues to be a leading food safety issue on the continent.

Conference Sponsors include the Africa Union’s Partnership for Aflatoxin Control (PACA), Abt Associates, the Schooner Africa Fund, AGCO/GSI and GrainPro.

Partners include the Kenyan Ministry of Agriculture, the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), Farm Concern International, Purdue Improved Crop Storage (PICS), and the World Food Preservation Center.

For more information, contact Jordan Dey (Jordandey@grainpro.com) or conference organizer Ludovica Bellingeri (lbellingeri@gmail.com)

(Victor Dela Casa)

A press release that I made for the Food and Agriculture Organization.

SUBSIDIZED HERMETIC BAGS LAUNCH IN KENYA’S BUSIA COUNTY

Farmers in Kenya’s Busia County could now avail of hermetic bags at a low, subsidized rate thanks to the partnership between the Agriculture Ministry, the US Agency for International Development (USAID), Kenya Agricultural Livestock and Research Organization, and the six storage firms that are spearheading the hermetic storage revolution in Africa. 

The Busia County government is urging farmers to buy and use affordable and efficient hermetic storage bags to protect against weevil infestation. Some one million bags are stocked across the county at a subsidized price of Sh200 (compared to the Sh300 retail price). One of these hermetic solutions is the GrainPro SuperGrainbag® Farm (SGB Farm). The SGB Farm is an Ultra Hermetic™ bag liner with extremely low permeability to air and moisture to stop infestation and inhibit the growth of aflatoxin-producing molds. It is designed to safely preserve the quality of grains and seeds for more than a year. 

According to Samson Khachina, County Director of Agriculture,” farmers require bags that are tightly sealed to store their maize.” In Kenya, the weevil infestation occurs because many farmers harvest their maize crops late in the season when it is already too dry to reduce their costs. “It is better for the farmers to take put in the effort to dry their maize to between 13 to 14 percent moisture content,” Khachina said. If done correctly, farmers can use hermetic bags to keep out weevils and kill off any that are still embedded with the stored maize without using harmful chemicals.

USAID has partnered with local governments and agricultural stakeholders to popularize the bags in all the 47 counties. Kenya is taking on a leadership role in food security in Africa. Major topical events, such as the Africa Strategic Grain Reserve Conference, were held in Nairobi last year. The country is also looking to include hermetic storage solutions into its subsidized pricing program. With the threat of food insecurity always a looming issue in the continent, Kenya’s pivotal role cannot be understated.

Rural Distribution Plays an Important Role in the Safe Preservation of Grains and Seeds in Ethiopia

“This is the first year I’m not buying chemicals to store my grain,” Baraka Nurie, the mother of three small children, revealed to Jordan Dey, GrainPro® VP for Food Security, during a visit on February in Ethiopia’s Gurage Region.

What gives? A new rural distribution strategy initiated in January 2017 by GrainPro’s Ethiopia distributor, HiTec, will give millions of small farmers access to pesticide-free and safe hermetic storage. Hermetic bags, such as GrainPro’s SuperGrainbag®, help stop infestation and inhibit the growth of aflatoxin-producing molds, while retaining the quality, color, and taste of stored grains for months, even years without using chemicals that can harm consumers.

HiTec’s strategy involves partnering with governments and local groups to conduct outreach activities that will see highly-trained agricultural extension officers visiting rural communities to train and educate farmers on hermetic storage, and establish a network of local dealers to supply the farmers.

Farmers in Ethiopia traditionally grow corn, sorghum and teff for their household consumption, keeping four or five bags (100KG) of the grain in their house.  Bugs, particularly weevils, immediately show up, infesting the grain, eating the nutritious core and reducing the contents to a powdery mess.

To combat this problem, farmers, desperate due to the lack of appropriate, affordable and alternative preservation methods during storage, are directly applying chemicals categorized under the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants on their grains every couple of months. Some of these chemicals have doubtful origins and are banned internationally from use without proper training because their use can have negative health and environmental effects. 

These chemicals kill the weevils, but leave residues that threaten the health of consumers, particularly children, and farm animals. At a financial standpoint, chemical pesticides reduce the market value of their crops. Additionally, the improper use of these chemicals can lead to environmental problems and health concerns for users and their families. Given the downsides of using chemicals, hermetic storage is clearly the safer and more cost-efficient alternative.

HiTec’s strategy involves partnering with governments and local groups to conduct outreach activities that will see highly-trained agricultural extension officers visiting rural communities to train and educate farmers on hermetic storage, and establish a network of local dealers to supply the farmers. One of the dealers, Shafi Agro in Butajira, already sold 439 GrainPro bags since the program started. 

The financial incentives of storing are undeniable. In southern Ethiopia, with the harvest just in, the price for a 100 KG bag of corn is currently $19 USD. In five months, as supplies diminish, the market price will increase to $31 per bag, or a 60% gain. The small farmers can recoup the cost of their investment in hermetic bag by waiting 3 to 4 months before they sell their grain.

Despite the obvious benefits, creating the foundation for behavior change among small farmers is a long-term process and requires a long-term commitment. Sharing this effort among governments, donors, non-profits, international organizations and the technology providers is the key to catalyzing behavior change and improving the health, nutritional and financial outcomes for small farmers globally. 

And the right time to do this is now.

With increasing pressures to stop the use of dangerous pesticides on dry agricultural commodities, there is a clear desire among farmers for safer alternatives. Baraka Nurie and others in her neighborhood got it right when they decided to stop using chemicals and try out hermetic storage. Aside from the financial potential, they can be sure that their children are eating safe.