Manila, Philippines – The private sector welcomes the plan of the Department of Agriculture (DA) to modernize rice milling facilities nationwide. Herculano Co, president of the Philippine Confederation of Grains Associations (Philcongrains), said yesterday that he would be interested in hearing how the Philippine Center for Postharvest Development and Mechanization (PhilMech) would go about it.
Co stressed that the improvement of rice milling facilities would reduce substantially the country’s post-harvest losses for rice, now estimated by PhilMech to be 16.47 percent. Most of these mills continue to use equipment that are as old as 70 years, while many of those using 50-year-old technology recover only as low as 50 percent or 55 percent of the processed grain, he noted. (Marvyn N. Benaning)