Its heart is in Italy, but its eyes are firmly on the world - Futura srl is a company that designs, builds, and implements fruit sorting and packaging technologies, and it is continuing on the road to innovation. Speaking about this is CEO Omar Papi.
Omar Papi and his father Leonardo at a past edition of Fruit Logistica
"Our company has always been pioneering in the search for innovative markets and less usual products," Papi begins. "In the past, I was the first to study date grading over 20 years ago in Israel. At Futura srl, we gained some experience about 8-9 years ago, albeit only with Medjoul dates, but I believe that the technology used at that time did not yet reflect the full potential available today. A few years ago, after a careful study of the product, needs, markets, and current competitors, we decided to create a completely innovative solution, which I believe is unique on the market. The decision was made precisely because we believe that there is an ever-increasing need to automatically grade and package this product. Clearly, the level of automation of the lines must be defined on the basis of the type/variety of dates to be processed (substantial difference in the selling prices of dates such as Medjoul or other cheaper ones), and the country of destination, where very often labour is considerably cheaper than in Europe.
In general, the most important parameters are diameter and weight, but also colour and the automatic detection of external defects. And of course, artificial intelligence is employed: "Our software systems for the external scanning of dates use artificial intelligence to automatically detect and analyse the various types of defects for the various types of dates, to create 'classes' that can be easily identified and selected by our customers. In addition, should the needs change during the campaign, the system is easily 'adaptable' to the new requirements."
"We will present some new features at the Gulfood Manufacturing exhibition in Dubai. Before we started the actual development of this new date grader, we set ourselves some key goals such as reliability, compactness, productivity, precision, and ease of use. The machine was conceived with durability and reliability in mind - it is made entirely of AISI 304 stainless steel and with very high-quality components to overcome the problems caused by the sugars released by the dates, and the need for continuous washing of the machines."
Omar Papi and Massoud Nikooseresht, export manager for the Middle East
In addition, it is extremely compact in order to reduce the space taken up in warehouses, as they are often not big enough to hold cumbersome machines. "We can process up to 6 tonnes/hour of dates per single machine. For larger capacities, we can even reach 12 t/hour by placing two machines side by side. With our electronic system, we have achieved a very high performance, far beyond the normal market requirements. In terms of user-friendliness, we have created a system that is easy to interpret and manage, as very often our customers' operators are not qualified technicians. Furthermore, the system is fully manageable remotely, allowing us complete control and troubleshooting with a simple connection."
Upcoming trade fairs - events
"As mentioned above, the next trade fair we will be attending, and where we will present our new date grading and packaging technology, will be Gulfood Manufacturing at the World Trade Center in Dubai, from 4 to 6 November. You will find us in Hall S3 Stand B-71. We have been exhibiting at this fair for several years now, and for us it is a benchmark for the entire Middle East."
"Next, we will be present as exhibitors for the first time at the Agro Food Expo in Tblisi, Georgia, on 27 and 28 November. We have decided to participate not only for our customers in Georgia, but also for those in Armenia. After that, we will prepare ourselves for Berlin, for us still undoubtedly the trade fair of reference, where we will be able to meet all our partners, collaborators, and the largest number of customers."
For more information
Futura s.r.l.
Via R. Mattioli, 136/156
47522 Cesena (FC) Italy
(+39) 0547-632749
[email protected]
www.futura-grading.com
