ProEx Food, LLC is adding their automation and integration expertise to their mushroom processing equipment. “We have been selling ProEx Food mushroom processing equipment for white button / white cup mushrooms, as well as a completely integrated line, for a few years,” says Nick Maglio, Director of Marketing. “Looking to the future for this product line and our positioning, we are always looking for ways to inject need-driven innovation into our solutions.”
ProEx Food has been reaching out to processors to learn more about their needs, as well as gaps and shortcomings for the production facilities’ existing equipment. The group believes that while many of their global customers are ready to invest in more efficient solutions, the US is especially poised to start upgrading their methods and technologies. Established, traditional US growers and processors considering new equipment are going to the same companies they have always bought from, and few have the time to seek out new players in the space. This means most attention is currently limited to small, incremental upgrades and immediate operational issues.
Ross Lund, CEO of ProEx Food explains, “We’ve had recent conversations with processors. A few have been open about their overall needs and capital investment concepts. Much like the entire industry, labor shortages are also impacting the category and has been a constant growth limiter. A lot of effort is focused on finding staff to manually perform cutting, cleaning, inspections, process transitions and packing tasks. Now, COVID-19 is creating more anxiety on how to keep operating, plus improve product and employee safety. These processors need more thorough solutions. That’s where we’re different, in that we already have automation technologies and robotics ready for this market.”
“At the baseline, we carry standard equipment, such as vacuum chambers, primary and secondary washers, slicers, blanchers and IQF freezers; and versions and configurations of these optimized for fresh market, frozen and canned. Of course, we go a step further,” says Daniel Ghadiri, CTO and President of ProEx Food. “We are ready to integrate this equipment with conveyors, graders/calibrators, both primary and secondary packaging and robotic applications. We’ll do it all – engineering, sourcing any needed technologies we don’t already build ourselves, installation and training. We’ll also centralize all of the control panels.”
ProEx Food recently made some updates to their website and added a new mushroom line on their YouTube channel. The next step is to create awareness, especially in the US, that they are ready to help with mushroom equipment and automation. Maglio concludes, “The mushroom market, especially in the US is ready for a leap in throughput and automation. ProEx Food is ready to apply our equipment and engineering expertise to help growers/processors achieve exactly that.”
For more information:
Nick Maglio
Director of Marketing
ProEx Food, LLC
marketing@proexfood.com
www.proexfood.com