Page 24 - Ameft Journal 2021-III

FCOCVUERS BSTEOVRERYAGES Avocado, macadamia and coffee trees in Mbinga they work well withstanding the tests of volume and time, so Bühler was already on my radar. For this operation however, we needed something suited to a lower output. As most of my team was already familiar with Bühler’s software and the technology, it seemed the most logical decision to look into their more cost-effective optical sorters with a lower carbon footprint that would suit a smaller operation,” Wield states. Impressive cost savings In May 2019, the Kijani Hai team in- stalled a Bühler DA MultiVision optical sorter in its export line after the gravity table separation. The sorter features a high-resolution RGB color camera which enables Kijani Hai to detect up to five color defects in one sorting pass, minimizing the need for product re-sorting. The DA MultiVision has al- lowed Kijani Hai greater control of its operations. “With the color sorter we can process much faster and more ef- ficiently,” Wield says. Indeed, he shares the company’s no- table cost savings as a result of using the optical sorter. “Without the optical sorter, we would expect a physical loss of 0.2% of the coffee (approximately 15,000 USD), but with the sorter, the losses are much closer to 0.0% mean- ing significantly less coffee wastage. “Our processing data also shows that the cost of hand-picking is 1.4 USD per 60 kg bags or 23 USD/MT. The margin- al cost of machine processing in com- parison, is just 0.29 USD per 60 kg bag (Source: Bühler) (Source: Bühler) or 4.8 USD/MT. On the 2,500 MT that we processed this year, the saving has been around 45,500 USD – excluding building and depreciation costs.” Thanks to its investment in the latest technologies such as the DA MultiVi- sion, Kijani Hai is now able to export its coffee to Germany, Holland, Italy, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, China, US, South Africa and North Africa. “Looking ahead, we hope to expand internally, within Tanzania and exter- nally as we’re always looking to bring Tanzanian coffee to new customers. CTCS will be maintaining its focus on East Africa and Central America – we eagerly anticipate whatever the future holds and will continue in our ongoing battle against deforestation and cli- mate change,” Wield concludes. Sortex DA coffee optical sorter (Source: Bühler) Bühler DA MultiVision optical sorter in export line 24 AMEFT 3 2021 www.ameftft.com