Nectar Group Ltd., a company with 37 years of experience in quayside bagging of agricultural commodities ranging from rice, sweet sorghum, corn and wheat, has offered the National Food Authority (NFA) and private companies their services to reduce losses and preserve the quality of cargoes.

In a recent briefing, Michael Connoly, Nectar representative for Asia , said the firm’s Compac 140 bagging system allows grains to be brought to the hoppers, which put them in 50-kilo polypropylene bags automatically and transports them into trucks using conveyors.

It also has a weighing system as well to check on the average bag weights to ensure that the volume is consistent throughout the process of discharge to delivery.

A report from the Societe Generale du Surveillance (SGS) in Umm Qasr, Iraq last Oct. 21 showed the Compac 140 handled 5,300 metric tons of bulk rice a day, from discharging to the sewing of bags to the conveying of the cargo to delivery trucks.

The SGS inspection affirmed the efficiency of the system and noted that spillages were quickly recovered and assessment showed the maximum loss was less than 0.5 percent per bag.

“We were also asked to comment on the bulk bagging process compared to the shipment of pre-bagged goods and we can advise that in our experience, the speed of operations, quality of bags delivered to transport and overall cleanliness of operations are greater with bulk shipments bagged at destination than when pre-bagged goods are shipped. The results of the tests also show that there is nom damage to cargo and the quality of the product is maintained,”
SGS reported.

Patrick Welter, general manager of Euro-Phil, a partner of Nectar Group in the Philippines, told the Manila Bulletin that cost-wise, bulk cargo shipments have lower freight rates and the insurance premiums are reduced. “This means there will be less expense to ship rice, corn and other cereals in bulk than when they are brought in already bagged,” he added.

Thus, NFA would be saving foreign exchange when it engages the services of Nectar Group, Welter, a long-time resident of Batangas, claimed.

With the Nectar Group system, Welter said, the integrity of the grains will be maintained, pilferage eliminated and brokens would not be higher than three percent.

However, the company has not yet bagged any significant Philippine contract considering the practice of NFA to ship in rice from Thailand and Vietnam already bagged.

Welter said he and his partners are hoping that the market would recognize the superiority of their product and contract their services in due time.