GRAINPRO, INC. - What's New?

Philippe Villers, President of GrainPro, Inc., announced that there has been granted a patent on V-HF fumigation and storage for rapid disinfestation of high value commodities such as cocoa, coffee, and spices, as well as for preserving the quality of sensitive dry commodities against oxygen induced degradation. Initial successes include dried fruits, cocoa, coffee, curry spices, and narcissus bulbs.

GrainPro, Inc. has a new brochure which covers all our products. For an online version (approximately 1.3 MB), click here to open. You will need Adobe Acrobat to open this file; to download this program click here.

BRAC Seed Processing Center Successfully Tests Cocoons™

The Bangladeshi Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) completed last year a 13-month test comparing storage on 8,000 kg of rice seed in Cocoons vs a control, bags of seed left normally exposed. BRAC is currently active in 61,924 villages in Bangladesh and has a village membership of over 3.5 million people, with a total of 18 seed production farms.

The results confirm earlier data obtained in Mexico, Thailand and the Philippines. Specifically, after 13 months, rice seed stored in Cocoons with an initial germination rate of 88% after 13 months were still 86%. However, the control bags of rice seed from the same batch left outside the Cocoon dropped to a germination rate of 1.4%, almost useless for seeding purposes.

Moisture content inside the Cocoon changed from a mean of 11.33% down to 11.30%, whereas the control went from 11.36% to 12.04%. Oxygen levels in the Cocoons were measured and found to be 2.7% instead of the normal atmospheric 21%. Based on this experiment, BRAC has concluded that Cocoons are a safe and cost effective way of storing rice seed for use by their farmers.

Philippe Villers, President of GrainPro, Inc., announced the purchase and use by Sri Lanka of ninety 50 MT capacity Cocoons. This important improvement of village level food security is sponsored by the Sri Lankan Ministry of Agriculture & Livestock. The Cocoons are used to provide safe storage for paddy as part of Sri Lanka's effort to provide high quality long-term storage for its rice supply on a distributed basis. GrainPro's representative in Sri Lanka, Agriworld (PTE) Ltd. and its Managing Director, Wicky Wickramatunga, worked with the Ministry in implementing this important initiative. Click here to view 50 MT Cocoons of the type being shipped for outdoor storage in Sri Lanka.

GrainPro has a new low cost O2 analyzer for use with hermetic storage or with CO2 applications.

This simple instrument enables the operator of a hermetic storage unit (GrainPro Cocoon™ or GrainSafe™) to measure O2 levels at set intervals and thus to make sure that the unit is hermetically sealed and working properly.

GrainPro developed this instrument in order to meet the demand of its customers for a low cost analyzer. In order to reduce chances for breakdowns and to reduce the price, the analyzer is equipped with a simple manual pump.

The GP 02-058364 is a portable, hand-held & light-weight Oxygen monitor. It includes a replaceable electro-chemical cell, a transmitter (PCB) unit and a display (LCD) of the concentration (in %). It is supplied in a carrying case of flexible PVC.