Chinese optical sorting equipment maker ANYSORT is supplying rice-sorting machines to Pakistan through local distributors, as demand grows for more automated processing in the country’s rice industry, a company representative told China Economic Net (CEN) on Tuesday.

The representative noted that Pakistan was one of the company’s overseas markets for rice-sorting equipment, and that the firm seeks deeper local cooperation in Pakistan, including possible partnerships with local firms, the representative said.

The machines are used to identify and remove defective grains and impurities during rice processing.

They use optical sensors and AI-based recognition to detect discoloured, broken or defective grains, as well as non-rice impurities such as glass, plastic or stones.

The company says the technology can also help reduce processing losses by improving the separation of usable grains from lower-quality material and impurities.

Pakistan is a major producer and exporter of long-grain rice, including basmati varieties.

The representative said the country’s rice-processing sector had demand for technology that could improve efficiency and quality control.

The company’s Pakistan push comes as China and Pakistan seek to expand agricultural cooperation, including in agricultural machinery, technical collaboration and local manufacturing.

Such cooperation has increasingly focused on moving beyond trade in farm products to processing, mechanisation and higher-value agricultural supply chains.

The firm is considering introducing a cloud-based factory management system to Pakistan, the representation told CEN.

The system is designed to connect sorting machines with production-line management, rather than having each machine operate separately.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP) — Pak-China