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Satake in Indonesia
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by Junya Ishibashi, Vice President, PT. Satake Gobel Indonesia he Republic of Indonesia is the home to the world’s fourth largest population (approximately 270 million people). As its official motto ‘Bhinneka Tunggal Ika’ (Unity in Diversity) states, the country is known for its rich diversity in land, people, and culture. The country consists of over 13,000 islands spread over 5,000km from east to west, which almost matches the width of the Northern American continent. According to the World Economic Forum, the number of languages spoken in the country also exceeds 700, which results in their language diversity being ranked number 2 in the world after Papua New Guinea. The people’s staple food is rice, but the country grows varieties of other commodities such as coffee etc. Satake has been working closely with its distributor, PT. Rutan in Indonesia for decades to provide solutions and services in the country. Also, it has established PT. Satake Gobel Indonesia (SGI) in 2013 to further serve customers in an efficient and
68 | August 2020 - Milling and Grain
timely manner to cover the Indonesian market in line with the country’s economic development. One of the SGI’s core activities is to expand its business in both rice and non-rice businesses with its highly trained service engineers. Another area SGI is currently focusing on is the grain processing industry, an area where optical sorting technology is needed to replace traditional methods of mechanical separation, which cannot give the required speed and accuracy. Here are two main challenges Indonesian processors currently face: Safety: Product contaminated with foreign or unwanted materials Quality: Inconsistent product quality resulting in lower product value The effectiveness of optical sorters, which inspects the optical quality of the product and rejects the defective material by compressed air, has been widely known by many processors. However, there are several obstacles posing challenges to introduce this technology to their facilities. The challenges each producer faces are different from one location to the next. The