Frísia invests in improving the Tibagi 3 unit to receive barley

Since January this year, Frísia has been investing in improvements at the Tibagi 3 grain receiving unit, located in the municipality of Paraná with the same name. The project is expected to come into operation in August and aims to modernize the structure for drying barley, a grain that requires care in drying and storage. This is one of the works planned among a series of improvements that will be carried out by the cooperative.

According to Primo Vaz da Costa Neto, coordinator of Engineering and Works at Frísia, the project has two main fronts: the first is the installation of the indirect grain drying system, that is, drying with “clean air”, without smoke generated by furnaces, “which provides the care that barley needs, with more quality for processing, meeting the requirements of breweries”. A lung silo and a cleaning machine will also be installed, due to the need for segregation.

Before the renovation at the Tibagi 3 unit, the cooperative member only had the possibility of indirect drying at the Ponta Grossa (PR) unit.

The improvement increases the cooperative's capacity to store barley, which will be supplied to Maltaria Campos Gerais, in Ponta Grossa. The industry is the result of investment by cooperatives Agrária, Bom Jesus, Capal, Castrolanda, Coopagricola and Frísia.

Friesian Agricultural Technical Assistance Coordinator, André Pavlak says that barley has specific requirements. “When you drink beer, if the barley has been dried improperly, you can taste and smell the smoke. So, drying the barley needs to be done using indirect fire, so that it does not even have an odor and, from a taste point of view, is not unpleasant”, says the coordinator.

Production

Friesian cooperative members in the 23/23 harvest have a total planted area of ​​approximately 8.700 hectares of barley, with an expected average productivity of 4.500 kg per hectare.

“Today, barley is quite divided across all areas of activity in Friesland. Tibagi is the municipality that has the most grain, around 2.600 hectares. Then, Carambeí has ​​2.000 hectares and then Ponta Grossa with approximately 1.400 hectares. But barley is well distributed in the region, such as Teixeira Soares, Ipiranga, Jaguariaíva, Sengés, Palmeira, among others”, explains Pavlak.

He reinforces that cooperative members have an average history of at least 95% of barley delivered as brewers. “For barley to be classified as brewing, it needs to meet some quality criteria, such as high germination, adequate protein content and grain size. If it does not meet these parameters, it is destined for animal feed”, concludes Pavlak.