Heated inclined screw conveyor for liquid cocoa in Booming Brazil

Monday 23 May 2011

Chocolate is booming in Latin America and Van Beek conveys a lot of this chocolate. Van Beek has designed a tubular conveyor with a heated body for the world's biggest chocolate manufacturer Barry Callebaut. This customised screw conveyor is able to lift liquid cocoa. This special tubular conveyor is already operating successfully at various international Barry Callebaut sites. Last summer Barry Callebaut started up its first chocolate factory in Latin America and again chose this specially designed tubular conveyor of Van Beek.

Barry Callebaut's first chocolate factory in Latin America is located in Brazil
In the established markets of Europe and the United States chocolate sales are falling because consumers are cutting back on their spending. Chocolate producers are therefore focussing on growth markets such as Mexico, China and Brazil. At present Brazil accounts for around half of worldwide growth. Chocolate consumption in Brazil is therefore increasing considerably each year in booming Brazil according to the 'Brazilian Association of Cacao, Chocolates, Candies and Byproducts Industries'.

Barry Callebaut has built its first production plant in South America in Extrema, located in the region of Sao Paulo, Brazil. With this plant Barry Callebaut hopes to be able to respond to the anticipated growth in consumption of chocolate products in Latin America. The majority of the cocoa beans for production will be supplied by a Barry Callebaut processing plant in the Brazilian state of Bahia. Over three years the factory in Extrema should be able to produce around 16,000 tons of chocolate per year. For the first year a production capacity of 50 percent is expected. The new factory not only produces milk chocolate, but also black and white varieties. In addition raw materials are also produced for industrial customers. Barry Callebaut is focussing with this new factory mainly on the growing foodservice-industry in Brazil and leading chocolate producers from the region.

Specific design of heated booster conveyor for liquid cocoa

In 2008 the Barry Callebaut plant in Belgium discovered the Van Beek screw conveyors in a Dutch trade journal, and soon made contact with Van Beek. In cooperation with Barry Callebaut, Van Beek has designed various screw conveyors for the plants in Belgium, France, Poland and Brazil. The tubular conveyor with a heated body for lifting and transporting liquid cocoa has a capacity of 15m³ per hour and has been pressure tested at 3 bar. The outlet can be rotated into various positions, this makes a flexible set-up possible. The screw has a small pitch (which means that the distance between the screw blades is short) so that a lifting height of around 3.5 metres can be achieved in spite of the considerable backflow of liquid cocoa.

World leader in the production of cocoa and chocolate products: Barry Callebaut
Barry Callebaut is world leader in the production of high quality cocoa and chocolate products from the cocoa bean to the finest end product. Represented in 26 countries, 41 production sites and with around 7500 employees. The head office is located in Zürich (Switzerland). Barry Callebaut provides service for the whole food industry, from food manufacturers to professional users of chocolate (such as chocolatiers, confectioners or bakers) and retailers operating worldwide. Barry Callebaut is a world leader in cocoa and chocolate innovations and offers an extensive range of services in fields such as product development, processing, training and marketing. The company is actively dedicated to initiatives and projects that contribute to a sustainable cocoa supply chain.

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