The first packline with a Reemoon sorter in the Eastern Cape was unveiled on 4 June 2018 at the Eden Agri Services packhouse outside Fort Beaufort, where it is already in use with the area’s soft citrus and navels.
Zhu Er, technical manager of Reemoon China, with attendees at the Eden Agri Services opening
Reemoon, based in China’s Jiangxi Province, is expanding its footprint in Southern Africa, where it is differentiating itself from other sizers on the market by two aspects: its affordability and its after sales service. There are already 23 Reemoon sizers in operation in South Africa, Swaziland and Zimbabwe, mostly in citrus packhouses at this stage, but including passion fruit and peaches, the largest a twelve-lane citrus packline in Hoedspruit.
The movable wax unit on the Reemoon line
Before a Reemoon packline is shipped to South Africa, it is run with fruit for five days at Reemoon’s manufacturing plant, before disassembled and shipped in a modular fashion to the customer. Manufacturing takes approximately 120 days, followed by a shipping period of 28 days and installation which takes between a week and three weeks.
“Our main objective is after sales service,” says Pierneef Smit, Reemoon South Africa’s deputy general manager. “If we install a machine it will be our routine to come to you every two weeks. In peak season, we’ll come to you every week.”
The new four lane Reemoon sorting machine at Eden Agri Services, Fort Beaufort
Reemoon South Africa already has six technicians in various provinces, but they will base a technician solely for the Eastern Cape in Port Elizabeth.
In an effort to make their machines affordable to growers and packers, their proprietary software and software updates will always be free, Pierneef assured members of the citrus community who attended the opening. An electrical technician with wide packhouse experience mentioned his impression of the simplicity and user-friendliness of Reemoon’s human-machine interface (HMI).
A further refinement that Reemoon offers is near infrared ray (NFR) scanning to determine internal quality and sugar levels, and it's even capable of detecting internal apple brown rot.
Front: Zhu Yi, CEO of Reemoon China, Zhu Er, Reemoon China technical manager and Xufei Jiang, general manager of Reemoon South Africa. Back: Anja Fourie, Reemoon SA admin manager, Gerhard Meyer, Reemoon SA sales manager and Pierneef Smit, deputy general manager of Reemoon SA.
The manual sorting table before fruit moves to the optic sensor
The optic sorter with a German-manufactured camera
For more information:
Pierneef SmitReemoon South Africa
Tel: +27 82 571 6469
Email: pierneef@reemoon.com.cn