Cereal Factory — a good business idea

Cereals occupy a significant niche among food products. But there are few large factories producing them in the country. This niche is not fully filled. Therefore, building such factories — an urgent task.

To solve this issue, financial investments will be needed to purchase equipment for cereal production, its installation, finding employees and suppliers of grain. With a well-prepared business plan, a cereal factory will already provide important products to nearby regions within 1-1.5 years, and also be able to export them.

The most common crops used for cereal production:

• rice;
• hemp;
• barley;
• proso (pearl millet);
• wheat;
• oats;
• corn;
• soy.

Aside from standard packaging of the finished product, quick-cooking varieties and portioned packaging are also used.

Production Technology

The entire production process is divided into the following stages:

1. Grain cleaning. Impurities such as soil, sand, metal, glass are removed. Organic impurities (defective grains, thin, frost-damaged, weed seeds) are separated;
2. Hydrothermal treatment of raw materials — steaming, drying, cooling. This stage is undergone by peas, hemp, oats, corn. This process increases the mechanical strength of the grain, its nutritional value, and storage life. The husk becomes more elastic. This facilitates further processing;
3. Dehulling or dehusking. The kernels are freed from husks, fruit, or seed coats;
4. Grinding and polishing. Part of the kernel is removed by grinding against machine elements. Barley, corn, wheat after such processing acquire spherical or oval shapes. This method reduces cooking time and improves taste. Peas, rice, barley, corn are polished;
5. Cleaning and sorting. The processed raw material is sieved, separating impurities. Then sorted by size;
6. Packaging of finished product. It is packed into 50 and 70 kg bags. Also — 0.5 and 1 kilogram.

The average yield is 63-66%. If we speak about specific positions, then peas have 73%, corn and polished pearl barley have 40%.

Equipment for cereal factories and cereal mills

To open a business producing this product, the following equipment is needed:

• Dehulling machine. It removes husks, seed, and fruit coats;
• Milling unit;
• Sieve (separates granular products by particle size);
• Aspirator (removes fine impurities);
• Thermo-packaging machine;
• Sealer.

Entrepreneurs purchase micro-factories and lines. Some line models can work simultaneously with several types of products. The productivity of such a line is on average 3 to 4.5 tons per day.

Factories producing equipment offer ready-made complexes for such enterprises. The industry offers:

• Cereal factory A1-AKP-0.5 (AO «Agrotorgmash», Moscow). Productivity 0.5 tons per hour of buckwheat and millet raw materials. An improved version of oatmeal and flour production 650 kg per hour;
• Production lines («Stankinprop», Ukraine, Kharkiv);
• Crushing unit P1-BRA-M («Melninvest») for small enterprises;
• Cereal crushing units «BRIG».

Business should be conducted using high-quality and high-performance equipment to avoid unexpected losses and achieve maximum profits.

Where to buy equipment

It is better to buy equipment for a cereal factory or small cereal mill directly from the manufacturer. «Melninvest» specializes in designing cereal factories and producing equipment that allows producing cereals of ideal purity and high nutritional value. 

It supplies aggregates and complexes to elevators, flour mills, compound feed production enterprises, and cereal factories. Employees will advise entrepreneurs on the set of equipment needed, based on the planned capacity and production areas.

Delivery is carried out either by «Melninvest» or by third-party transportation companies. Specialists will assist in installation and commissioning works.