JAKARTA, INDONESIA — The Bühler Group announced on March 4 that it will supply two rice reprocessing lines to the TPS Group, an Indonesian rice and noodle producer.

The two 17 tph lines are valued at $7 million. The supply contract, signed on March 4 at the JW Marriott hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia, marks a further milestone in Bühler’s continuing expansion in rice processing across Asia and a significant step forward for the TPS Group, following its entry into the rice business in 2010.

At the signing ceremony, the Tiga Pilar Sejahtera (TPS) Group were represented by Joko Mogoginta, chief executive officer, and Sjambiri Lioe, chief financial offier.  The Bühler Group was represented by Dieter Voegtli, president of Bühler Asia, Rustom Mistry, director, head of Rice Processing, Asia and Tomas Soleman, managing director of Buhler Indonesia.

The installation of the rice reprocessing plants at Sidrap, South Sulawesi, will increase the TPS Group’s total production capacity by 240,000 tonnes per year, with warehouse capacity increasing to 30,000 tonnes. The project by Bühler will be commissioned by mid-year 2016.

TPS Group currently has three rice processing plants across Indonesia, including PT. Jatisari Rejeki (Cikampek-West Java), PT. Indo Bears Unggul (Cikarang-West Java) and PT. Sukses Abadi Karya Inti (Sragen-Central Java), with a total capacity of 480,000 tonnes.

Investment for the TPS Group’s South Sulawesi sites, valued at $53 million, will increase the manufacturer’s total production capacity to 810,000 tonnes per year while underlining its commitment to achieve a 5% share of milled rice production volume in Indonesia by 2020.

“The agreement with the TPS Group demonstrates Bühler’s commitment to develop state of the art processing solutions and an acknowledgement of our global capability to supply complete process engineering solutions, driven by our leadership in rice research and technical excellence,” said Bühler’s Mistry. “By choosing Bühler to support its rice processing lines, the TPS Group is well positioned to meet its plan of achieving a significant share of the milled rice production in Indonesia. We look forward to continuing our relationship with the TPS Group.”