Bagged rice comes to harm in the monsoon when it takes up moisture: from leaking roofs, from damp floors and walls, and from humid air in a closed store. Receive it dry and record its moisture, stack it on pallets with clear space around every stack, keep the store ventilated and the roof sound, inspect it every week, and issue the oldest stock first. None of this is complicated. The losses come from skipping it.
Key takeaways
- Damp rises through floors and walls, so keep every bag on a pallet and every stack clear of the walls.
- Record moisture when stock arrives. Damp stock does not dry out in a humid store.
- Inspect weekly for damp spots, torn bags, insects, mould and smell, and act on what you find.
- Keep lots apart by product and arrival date, and issue first in, first out.
In this guide
Why the monsoon is the risky season
Milled rice exchanges moisture with the air around it. In the dry months, stock that arrived at a safe moisture tends to stay safe. In the monsoon, long spells of humid air, driving rain, leaking roofs and wet floors give rice every chance to pick up moisture, and damp rice is where mould and insects get started.
Parboiled and raw rice need the same care. As our comparison of parboiled and raw rice notes, moisture at packing, the bag, the store and pest control decide how well either kind keeps. FAO gives about 14% moisture as generally safe for storing rice in tropical conditions; agree the limit that applies to your contract and measure against it.
Before the rain: the store itself
FAO’s guidance on storehouses for bagged grain sets out what the building has to do: keep the grain dry, keep heat down, keep insects, rodents and birds out, and make inspection and treatment easy. Before the monsoon, check:
- Roof and gutters: repair leaks before the rains. A roof overhang keeps rain from blowing in through the vents.
- Floor: a damp-proof floor stops moisture rising. Where the floor is not damp-proof, pallets matter even more.
- Vents: open, screened against birds, rodents and insects, and not blocked by stacks.
- Site and drainage: water should run away from the building, not along its walls or in through the doors.
- Cleanliness: sweep out old grain and spillage, which harbour insects.
Receiving stock in the wet season
Check each lot before it goes into a stack:
- Look for wet, stained or torn bags, and keep them apart from dry stock.
- Draw a sample from several bags and record its moisture with the date. Compare it with the limit in your contract.
- Check the vehicle floor and tarpaulin. Rice that travelled under a leaking cover shows it first in the top and bottom layers.
- Record the lot, product, arrival date and bag count on a stack card.
Dry stock cannot be made safe by stacking it next to damp stock. If a lot arrives wet, settle it with the supplier and the transporter before it goes into the store; our dispatch checklist covers what to write on the receipt.
Pallets, stacks and space
FAO’s guidance is clear on the essentials. Bags go on pallets, never directly on the floor. Each lot has its own marked space. Corridors between the walls and the stacks should be at least 1 metre wide, with wider passages between lots. Stacks of woven plastic bags should not exceed about 3 metres in height. Build each stack so that every bag rests on two below it, with the sides leaning slightly inwards.
Hypothetical example. Real layouts depend on your bag and pallet sizes and on how stock is handled.
How much floor does 40 MT of bagged milled rice need? FAO puts the space taken by milled rice in bags at about 1.6 cubic metres a tonne, so 40 MT occupies about 64 m³. Split into two lots of 20 MT, each lot takes about 32 m³. Stacked 2.5 metres high, each lot needs about 12.8 m² of pallet area, for example 4.0 m by 3.2 m. Add a 1 metre corridor along the walls and a 2 metre passage between the two lots, and the store needs a clear floor of about 12.0 m by 5.2 m, or 62.4 m². In bags, 40 MT is 800 bags of 50 kg, or about 1,540 bags of 26 kg.
The weekly inspection
FAO recommends daily walks through the store, a more thorough inspection every week or two, and a full inspection every month. Through the monsoon, weekly is the safer rhythm for the thorough check.
WEEKLY MONSOON STORE CHECK Date and checked by: Roof, walls and vents (leaks, wet patches, blocked vents): Floor and corridors (damp, standing water, spillage): Each stack, by stack card (damp or stained bags, torn stitching, leakage): Insects (live insects, webbing, holes in bags): Rodents and birds (droppings, gnawed bags): Smell at the stack face (musty, sour): Moisture of a few bags from each lot: Actions taken, and by whom: Stock issued this week (lot, bags) and oldest lot remaining:
If rice gets wet
Move wet or stained bags out of the stack at once, so the damp does not spread, and keep them apart. Check the rice in them before anything else is decided: rice that has been wet may no longer be fit for its intended use, and it should not be re-bagged or mixed into dry stock. Record what happened, with photographs, for the supplier, transporter or insurer.
If you find insects, call a licensed pest-control operator rather than improvising. Fumigants are hazardous and their use is regulated.
Rotation: first in, first out
Keep lots separate by product, quality and arrival date, and issue the oldest first. FAO lists first in, first out among the basic rules of bag storage. Mark the arrival date on the stack card and on the front of each pallet; rotation fails when the newest lot is stacked in front of the oldest.
When you plan deliveries for the season, match lot sizes to the space you can keep dry. SONIK packs rice in 26 kg and 50 kg bags; rice packing requirements covers bag materials and marking, and the product range lists what is milled at Ghentugachhi. For a quotation sized to your store, use the bulk enquiry form.
Sources
- FAO. Storage in bags, in Agricultural engineering in development: storehouse requirements, pallets, stack heights, corridors, specific volume, first in, first out and inspection frequency.
- FAO (1993). Rice in human nutrition, chapter 5, on moisture for safe storage.
