Brazilian warehousing needs a technological upgrade

Despite grain production breaking record after record, storage capacity in Brazil does not match this increase. And, among existing storage facilities, many units are old, more than 20 years since installation, with equipment outdated by time and technology. If, on the one hand, investments in tractors, harvesters, and other implements that already feature modern multi-sensors receive good attention from producers, the storage area, where they will keep their harvested assets, has not received the same attention.

"It's curious to observe the order of priority of Brazilian rural producers when it comes to investments made by their companies. The first thing they think of, when they have surplus resources, is buying land, the second is agricultural machinery and. in the last items, it is either to buy a storage system or to renew and improve what you already have," comments Everton Rorato, commercial director of PCE Engenharia, a company with 19 years of experience that in recent years has dedicated itself to the automation sector in post-harvest equipment. In his view, this is one of the factors that contribute to the technological gap that currently exists in the Brazilian storage park. "Just to give you an idea, in the last five years, there has been a great evolution in research and development of sensors, systems that capture information about what happens in the environment of a silo or a warehouse, in digital thermometry, in connectivity, among others, but this has not been adopted by a large part of those who work with storage, creating a very significant gap in the management of this process," says Rorato.

The executive even mentions that this lack of technological updates ends up causing losses for the storage facility. According to him, managing grain storage requires the person in charge of this function to be very attentive to the various factors that occur in the internal and external environment of a silo. "Temperature inside and outside the silo, relative humidity, atmospheric pressure - all of these, surprisingly enough, need to be measured to know whether it's the right time to start aeration, for example. And technologically outdated equipment can misread all these items, provide incorrect information, and cause a loss of grains or their quality, ultimately leading to financial loss," notes the commercial director.

Rorato says that it was by looking at this situation that PCE developed automation solutions for controlling grain storage conditions. The company's digital thermometry area is one of the highlights of its portfolio. Through this system, it is possible to monitor the temperature of stored grains via an application developed by PCE and, based on this information, make the most appropriate decision for the moment. Another technology developed by the company is a cloud-based portal that the storage manager can access from anywhere, and which shows the conditions of the grain inside the silo/warehouse. The system presents various information very clearly, producing a data history to consult at any time. "It's a technology that allows tracking grain storage conditions, helping in decision-making in this process," Rorato concludes.