Asia Food & Beverages Report (May/June 2021 issue)

ASEAN
GRAIN MILLING TECHNOLOGY
Bühler launches new integrated rice mill concept – Uniline
in Southeast Asia
Swiss-based Bühler Group has recently unveiled its new integrated rice mill
concept optimised for Southeast Asia’s rice varieties. Uniline rice mills are
all-inclusive equipment packages which can be installed and commissioned
within 18 weeks from order.
Vianney d’Hostel, Head of Business Intelligence Southeast Asia at Bühler
said, “Early months of the COVID-19 crisis have shown vulnerabilities in rice
supply chains worldwide. Lockdowns and restrictions in movement of the
workforce have stressed the need for more automated mills. At the same
time, disruption in supply chains and fast-changing protectionist policies have
highlighted the need for shorter and distributed rice supply chains.”
With many countries and provinces now ramping up plans to increase selfsufficiency
in rice production, Bühler anticipates public and private sector will
tend to prioritise simpler, more robust and decentralised solutions to the food
supply chains.
Asif Abbas, Southeast Asia Regional Manager for Rice at Bühler explained,
“The fundamental idea behind Uniline is that it is an all-inclusive rice mill
delivered to your site. It includes all the equipment, the automation systems
and the prefabricated steel structure needed to create a compact 2-level rice
mill.”
Uniline relies on an optimised concept developed by Bühler, which allows
the Swiss company to achieve 15% energy savings in a 40% smaller footprint
compared to conventional rice mills. Project speed is also increased, with
commissioning taking place 18 weeks from the order with the support of local
Bühler installation teams. “This all-inclusive package reduces the project’s
complexity for rice millers, who will now have a single point of contact
accountable for their entire mill,” added Mr Abbas.
The Uniline rice mill is already available for orders in Southeast Asia in
3 capacity options namely 5, 8 and 10 tons per hour. “Our primary market
for Uniline are remote green field projects. We also anticipate interest from
established rice millers who will be interested to add new dedicated lines for
organic or local rice sub-varieties.” Uniline offers a high-level of automation,
quality control and food-safety, making it suitable for operations aiming at
export markets.
As a relevant solution partner for the food and mobility industries, Bühler is
committed to reduce energy, waste, and water in its customers’ value chains
by 50% by 2025. Bühler is active in 140 countries around the world and
operates a global network of 100 service stations, 33 manufacturing sites,
and application and training centers in 24 locations.
VIETNAM
Packaging & Technology News
PACKAGING MATERIAL
Vietnamese Paper, Packaging firms optimistic of
domestic, export markets
Vietnam stable economic environment as well as its minimal
pandemic disturbances has boosted business prospects for paper
and packaging companies this year.
The An Phat Bioplastics JSC aims to achieve consolidated revenue
of Dong 9.5 trillion (US$412.8 million) this year, up by 28% from
2020. Another major players, Dong Hai JSC of Bentre (DHC) aims
to achieve Dong 3.5 trillion (US$150 million ) in revenue and Dong
393 billion (US$17.11 million) in post-tax profit, which is 2.15 times
higher than previous year. Meanwhile, Thuan Duc JSC (TDP) has set
a revenue target of Dong 1.97 trillion (US$86 million) and a post-tax
profit goal of Dong 88 billion (US$3.83 million).
TDP is one of the leading manufacturers in the country for
environmentally friendly polypropylene (PP plastic) packaging
products in Vietnam, which witnessed continuous revenue growth
over the years. It has a product line of shopping bags, mainly for
export, accounting for half of the company’s annual revenue, besides
animal feed packaging product line and packaging agricultural
products and the fertiliser packaging line. The enterprise’s 1A factory
and 1B factory have a combined capacity of 25,000 tonnes of seeds
per year and 8,000 tonnes of packages per year. Its No.2 factory has
an export capacity of 150 million packages per year, while its No.3
factory has a capacity of 8,000 tonnes of packages per year.
In the 1 st quarter of 2021, TDP reported stable and high revenue
growth in the domestic market with higher packaging sales of animal
feed and agricultural products. In addition, the export market for
supermarket shopping bags has recovered considerably from a year
ago in 2020.
Paper packaging consumption in Vietnam is expected to increase by
12% in 2021-2025 and this is partly attributed to rapid urbanisation in
the country. The proportion of urban population to the total population
in Vietnam will reach 40% by 2024 compared to 37% in 2019. The
paper packaging segment also benefits from the rapid growth of
Vietnam’s e-commerce.
Analysts forecast that the growth of the plastic packaging segment in
2021 in Vietnam will depend on spending on food and non-alcoholic
beverages. The growing demand for packaging products will also
grow in Asia and this will be a growth catalyst for the packaging export
segment in Vietnam.
45 Asia Food & Beverages