Republic of the Philippines
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Philippine Center for Postharvest
Development and Mechanization
CLSU Compound, Science City of Muñoz, Nueva Ecija

NEWS STORIES

PHilMech to update postharvest aficionados in 2010 Agrilink exhibit
by Isis DC. Davalos (September 20, 2010)
The Philippine Center for Postharvest Development and Mechanization (PHilMech) will give an update on the recent developments in the postharvest industry during the Agrilink, Foodlink, Aqualink 2010 on October 7- 9, 2010 at the World Trade Center in Manila.

The event is one of the country`s most prestigious international agribusiness and food show. The theme for this year is `Good Agricultural Practices (GAP`s): Key to Competitiveness` which cuts across all sectors of the agriculture, fishery and food industries.

PHilMech will showcase commercially available postharvest technologies such as flat bed dryer, recirculating dryer retrofitted with rice hull furnace, corn planter, corn sheller, thresher, grain moisture meter and data loggers intended for grains.

The cold chain system, agricultural tramline, multi-commodity solar tunnel dryer, cashew sheller, charcoal-fired oven, copra moisture meter and multi commodity moisture meter for high value commercial crop will also be featured in the exhibit.

These technologies are geared towards helping farmers maintain the quality of their produce for international market competition.

There will be free taste of processed products produced by PHilMech collaborators such as cashew nuts, cashew butter, tomato jam, and a lot more.

An audio visual presentation about the different postharvest technologies, their operation and maintenance will also be shown. Free seminars will be held on October 9 from 10:30am to 12:30pm at Seminar Room C.

Among the topics to be discussed by PHilMech researchers include Agri-Tramline for Upland Fruit and Vegetable Farms, Production and Postproduction Management of Non Chemical Banana, Improvements in Coffee Processing Equipment, Dehydration of Food Products Using MCSTD, Machine Vision for the Physical Analysis of Rice and Corn Grains and Retrofitting Mechanical Dryers with Biomass Furnace.