The berry harvest season is upon us, and farm owners need to pick, transport, and process large quantities of berries daily. The Zhucheng Kangzhida Machinery company in China has a berry lug cleaning machine that is capable of cleaning 500 trays per hour, which is approximately three times faster than manual cleaning and requires only two workers to operate the whole washing system, leaving the rest of the workers to perform other tasks on the farm. 
The berry is a fruit with fragile skin. When transporting them in a harvest tray or lug, the skin of some berries may break so that some juice may be left on the tray. The juice sticks to the tray's surface, which may attract the attention of insects, which is clearly unacceptable for the client. To ensure that the berries are kept in a hygienic environment all the time, the farm owner has the workers clean the trays every day.
According to Allen White, from the Zhucheng Kangzhida Machinery company in China, the director of a farm in Mexico told them they have had workers use brushes to clean the trays in the past. "The cleaning effect is not ideal, and the speed is uncontrollable. So there is some unwashed trays leftover that will not be available for the next day's berry harvest. Every employee is busy with work for the harvest season, so it is not practical to transfer employees from other positions to clean the tray. In addition, Covid-19 has led to a labor shortage, so it is difficult to recruit more workers to do these cleaning jobs."
To save running costs, farms need machines to help do these tasks as the tray washer has a more comprehensive cleaning area and can cover every surface of the berry tray. It ensures each tray gets the same cleaning time as manual cleaning, so the cleaning effect and speed are under control.
Click here to see the basic workflow of the tray washer.
In addition to the essential cleaning function, additional units can be added for this washer, such as a disinfection unit, drying unit, automatic stacker, etc. So the tray washer will be 100% tailor-made based on the clients cleaning needs and budget.
For more information:
Allen White
Zhucheng Kangzhida Machinery
Tel: +86 178 52865216
Email: allen.white@kanzda.com
www.crate-wash.com