UK: Tong Peal provides root vegetable and salad grading line in Finland

Following severe fire damage devastating family run Finnish smallholding, FinneFarm, Christer Finne and his wife Eivor made the decision to completely re-design the farm’s layout and invest in a new static grading and washing line to fit their exact needs and allow the efficient grading of a wide variety of specialist crops.

Based in rural Finland, specialist vegetable farm Finne Farm grows 12 hectares of mixed root and salad crop including carrots, swede, celery, parsnips iceberg lettuce and several types of cabbage. The farm also grows over a hectare of planted onions, a notoriously difficult crop to grow and grade in Finland, due to the seasonal climate.

“Since 1988 we have grown from a family smallholding into a specialist supplier of high quality vegetables,” said Mr. Finne. “We regularly process over 400 tonnes of mixed root and salad crop and even run a farm blog alongside a number of other farmers at the national public service broadcasting company.

“Due to the huge variety in crop types and growing seasons, we needed to invest in a bespoke handling line, that was not only capable of washing, grading, inspecting and packing multiple crops, but also versatile enough to handle the crops carefully and efficiently in our shed space.

“We purchased a complete grading line from Tong Peal, due to previous purchase experience and commitment from their local Scandinavian agent, alongside Tong Peal’s ability to design, build and commission a line capable of sorting different crop types and processing a high hourly crop tonnage. The system features a top pivot box tipper on the infeed, a diverging chain grader, brush barrel washer, fixed star soil extractor, variable speed inspection table and a semi-automatic single box filler,” added Mr. Finne.

Charlie Rich, export sales manager at Tong Peal Engineering, said: “Through our dedicated agent Bo R Adolfsson Consulting who sells our equipment into Finland as well as Sweden and Norway, we were able to offer Mr. Finne the complete solution to his handling needs; from taking the initial brief to creating the bespoke grading line, managing the installation and providing after sales care.

“Customers often come to us with specific requirements and individual handling needs and we work closely with them to ensure we create the most effective and efficient solution.

“We’ve ensured that Finne Farm is now able to effectively grade and handle a wide variety of crop using one simple process, ensuring economy of resource, time and labour.”

For more information:
Charlie Rich
Tong Peal
Tel: +44 1790 755104
Charlie@tongpeal.com
www.tongpeal.com