FAQs on storage
Where can I buy the Super bag?
The IRRI Super bag was jointly developed by IRRI and GrainPro, Inc., which is located in Subic, Pampanga, Philippines. As of 2016 the IRRI Super bags are equivalent with the GrainPro® SuperGrainbag® Farm™. GrainPro has distributors in many rice growing countries. Kindly refer to the GrainPro website for more details (www.grainpro.com).
Please note that IRRI does not endorse or recommend specific manufacturers, if several manufacturers are producing similar products with similar quality. There are other supposedly hermetic storage bags in different markets but we have not tested them and some bags we tested had too high oxygen permeability to be hermetic. To our knowledge GrainPro is therefore currently the only manufacturer who makes hermetic storage bags according to the hermetic specifications and with the manufacturing quality required by our projects.
Can I re-use the Super bag?
You can re-use the super bag as long as it is airtight. To check for holes:
- Fill the super bag with air
- Seal it
- Compress the bag e.g. by putting a brick or a book on top and observe whether it looses air
Small punctures can be repaired with adhesive tape. To be sure apply several layers of tape crosswise over the hole.
Can I use Super bag for other crops?
The Super bags have also been found suitable for dried maize, coffee, cocoa, beans, rice bran and several other crops.
Can I use any plastic bag instead of the Super bag?
No. Plastic films that plastic bags are made of are very thin and usually have high oxygen permeability. Normal plastic bags, e.g. polyethylene bags (PE bags, polybags), which can be bought for various purposes, let too much oxygen pass through the material. They are therefore not hermetic in the sense of hermetic storage. The IRRI Super bag is made from a special plastic composition that minimizes the oxygen permeability. The figure below shows a comparison of normal plastic bags, in this case made from polyethylene (PE) with the IRRI Super bag. It is obvious that the oxygen that is depleted inside the PE bag is replaced by oxygen that moves through the plastic from the air outside the bag.
