This season, Kazakh farmers have achieved a high grain yield of over 26 million tons, including 17 million tons of wheat. Due to the harvesting occurring under high humidity conditions from the rain, long lines of trucks formed at the elevators - the intake process was slow as a significant amount of time was needed to dry the incoming volumes.
Additionally, many agro-industrial enterprises found their own storage facilities filled even before the harvesting of all fields was completed, as the yield was two to three times higher than usual.
Another challenge was the shortage of trucks needed to transport the abundant harvest from the fields.
These factors led to the search for alternative grain storage options. One such option is polymer sleeves, which can be rolled out close to the harvesting site.
For instance, the Grain Consortium of Kazakhstan (Akmola and North Kazakhstan regions) reported that 80,000 tons of new wheat harvest will be loaded into the sleeves. This will allow them to dedicate their own elevator capacities to more profitable oilseed crops.
This method is very straightforward: a special machine slowly rolls out the sleeve while grain is loaded into it through a hopper. A vacuum environment forms inside, providing an optimal microclimate. A popular option in Kazakhstan is the ZPM-180 packaging machine, which has a sleeve tunnel with a diameter of 2740 mm and allows loading from 200 to 350 tons of grain per hour. This is the type used by the LLP "Naydarovskoye" in the Karaganda region.
Polymer sleeves ensure airtight grain storage and also block sunlight. This allows them to be left outdoors for extended periods.