Meeting increased demand for pre-packed table grapes
Marco have produced a white paper which reviews these challenges and outlines how low-risk investments in the latest pack-house technologies can significantly improve overall efficiencies.
Introduction
There is clear evidence from pack-house managers around the world that the key issue for them is pack-house accountability: accountability in terms of being able to keep control of large numbers of employees and measure their ongoing performance in order to optimise overall productivity.
Global fruit production has experienced a remarkable increase over the last two decades, growing at annual rates of around 3% – rates of growth that exceed most other food crops.* In 2010, almost 600 million tonnes of fruit were harvested throughout the world, with grapes accounting for around 11% of this quantity. (Statistics courtesy of FAO - Food & Agriculture Organization of the United Nations www.fao.org)
Although there are no clear statistics relating to the proportion of table grapes within this 11%, the demand for high quality per-packed grapes is growing significantly. South Africa for instance, although a relatively small grape producer on the world stage (20 times smaller than the US), is the world’s largest exporter of grapes in tonnage terms, accounting for almost 8% of the global table grape export market (80% of this goes to countries within the EU.)
*Particularly strong growth rates in fruit and vegetable cultivation are occurring in food-insecure and low income regions, such as in parts of Africa, South America and South Asia. This demonstrates that horticultural crop production generates high economic returns per unit of land, offering promising income prospects, especially for smallholders and when land is scarce. In addition, being labour intensive, the horticulture sector can contribute to poverty reduction by providing paid employment opportunities.
To obtain your copy of the white paper please contact:
info@marco.co.uk