Café Iguaçu, one of the top coffee brands in Brazil, almost trebles its production of freeze dried coffee to meet current and future market requirements. The equipment will be supplied by GEA Niro of Denmark who is a part of the Process Engineering division of GEA. The total project value amounts to approximately EUR 16 million.

With this order, the company is able to increase its production of freeze-dried coffee to 7,000 tons per year. This will help the company satisfy a global increase in demand for high-quality instant coffee. Although Café Iguaçu expands its freeze drying capacity the company does not increase its overall production significantly, the production of which will reach approximately 19,500 ton a year.

According to Fabio Sato, the company’s Corporate Planning Manager, this is to help the company satisfy a global increase in demand for high-quality instant coffee. “There is a global excess of installed capacity for the spray-dried product but demand for freeze-dried coffee is more balanced,” he says. “All freeze dryers in the world are working at full capacity.”

Chooses the best technology
The company chooses to manufacture in a continuous process using an Atlas freeze drying plant of the type CONRAD™ 500 from GEA Niro. The system handles all freeze drying operations from the concentrated coffee extract to the finished freeze-dried coffee. Café Iguaçu chose GEA Niro’s CONRAD™ 500 as the company had installed a similar system at a joint venture company in Spain, in partnership with Seda Solubles of Palencia, last year. “Our experience shows us that this is the best technology for us,” says Fabio Sato.

Café Iguaçu lays the foundations of the building that will house the new plant and the production of freeze-dried coffee will start in 2010. The expanded production will service the expanding market for top-quality coffee in Russia and Eastern Europe together with the more traditional markets of Europe and Asia.

GEA Niro took over the Atlas freeze drying technology seven years ago. Since then CONRAD™ freeze drying plants have been supplied to about a dozen of the world’s leading producers of instant coffee, ranging from South America over Europe and Russia to the Far East and South East Asia. Some customers have even placed repeat orders.

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About the GEA Group
GEA Group Aktiengesellschaft is Germany's largest listed mechanical engineering group. As an internationally operating technology group, the company concentrates on specialty mechanical engineering with a focus on process technology and components. Consolidated sales amounted to EUR 5.2 billion in 2007. The Group generated over 50 percent of its sales in the high-growth food processing and beverages industries. The company's workforce comprised over 20,000 employees based in 50 countries as of June 30, 2008. The GEA Group ranks as a market and technology leader in 90 percent of its business areas. GEA Group is listed in the German MDAX share index (G1A, WKN 660200).