World Grain - May 2018 - 58

FEATURE: BUILDING A NEW BRAND

Workers stack bags of flour on pallets in preparation for shipping.

Pakistan's milling industry
While Sunridge Foods' new flour mill is located in
the Sindh Province, the largest concentration of
wheat mills is in the Punjab Province, which accounts for a little over half of the population but
about 75% of the nation's cereal production.
One of the world's largest canal irrigation
systems crisscrosses the Indus River plain that
extends most of the length of the country. Wheat
has been cultivated there for thousands of years.
Abundant water from the Himalayan snowmelt
allows for reliable yields that have been steadily
increasing in recent years thanks in part to the
introduction of improved varieties.
Larger commercial farms capable of selling
directly to millers are the rule in Punjab as compared to other parts of the country. As a result,
the Punjab Province is a large net supplier of both
wheat and flour to the rest of the country.
Millers in the Sindh, Balochistan and Khybere
Pakhtunkwa provinces as well as the federal
capital of Islamabad buy much of their wheat
from Punjab and then compete with wheat flour
produced by Punjab millers. Sindh Province, which
is semi-arid over much of its area, cannot grow
enough wheat to feed all its citizens, including
the 20 million in the city of Karachi.

ery. "It is fully automated from end to end," Amin said.
"Once wheat is put into the silo, there is no manual
handling. Automatic packaging machines are linked to
the plant, which delivers packaged bags to the conveyor without any manual handling."
Before arriving in the milling section, the wheat goes
through two cleaning sections featuring Bühler equipPHQW7KH¿UVWFOHDQLQJVHFWLRQLQFOXGHVÀRZEDODQFers, a MTRC-150/200 separator with 24-tph capacity,
a MTSD 65/120 destoner with 12-tph capacity, indent
cylinder, scourer and dampener before arriving at two
6-tonne tempering bins. After tempering, the wheat is
sent to the second cleaning section where it again runs
through a destoner, scourer and separator. "It has a multiple, optimized cleaning process for ensuring wheat is
free from any type of impurities, before sending it to the
milling process," he said. "The wheat is then ground on
the PesaMill and the (atta) is sent to storage bins, which
are directly connected to the packing bins via a screw
conveyor and fast, highly automated packing machines,
which deliver a packaged, sealed product."
After leaving the cleaning house, the wheat passes
through a scale and a magnet before it is processed in
the PesaMill, which has a throughput of up to 50 tph. It
is then conveyed to Bühler MPAV-8 plansifters, which
segregates three different ways. One stream leaves the
plansifter and goes directly to storage after passing
through a scale and magnet. The second stream leaves
the plansifter and goes through four Bühler MDDY250/1250 roller mills, two Bühler Vibro-Sieving machines, four eco-sifters, and another Vibro-Sieving machine before conveyed to storage. The third stream runs
through the sifter and back through the PesaMill before
being sent to storage.
The mill's production capacity is 130 tonnes per 24
hours, and it has one grain storage silo with a capacity of 3,500 tonnes with "room to add three more silos
of the same capacity," Amin said The mill, which runs
eight-hour shifts, six days a week, has 12 full-time employees and another 15 that are outsourced, Amin said.
He said Sunridge's vision is "to be recognized as the
most trusted food company." It has invested in the plant
and allied processes with a long-term view of developing a premium food brand in the market, which sets
a new benchmark in food safety and product quality.
"We aim to consistently deliver what we promise to our
consumer and customers," Amin said.
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May 2018 / World Grain / www.World-Grain.com

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World Grain - May 2018

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