South Africa: Novo has fresh, new outlook on future of packaging

The meaning of the word ‘novo’ in Portuguese means fresh, modern and new. These attributes are a very appropriate description of the new Novo packhouse, the pride of well-known South African fruit exporter, Colors Fruit.

The first fruit in this state-of-the-art fruit packhouse was packed in July 2010. Now almost 18 months later, the plant is running like a well-oiled machine. The plant is currently packing plums, nectarines, peaches, apricots, apples and pears, all on the same grading line, but with multiple infeeds.

Novo has acquired and imported a second hand Greefa presort plant which will be installed in the first quarter of 2012 along with 6 specialist packing lines dedicated to packing fruit pre-graded on the former. This pre-sorter will be able to grade apples into quality, size and colour to enable the specialist lines to be able to pack fruit without having to sort again. The pre-sorter will be able to sort and grade 400-500 bins per shift, thus creating capacity of 800 - 1000 bins per day.

The next phase of the expansion is currently underway and includes additional packaging material mezzanine decks, training room and cafeteria for personnel, cold stores for bins, expansion of refridgeration capacity and in January 2012 the forced cooling capacity will be doubled.

The expansion of the cold rooms will increase bin capacity from 2600 bins to 5000 bins, whereas the forced cooling will increase from 320 pallet capacity to 560 pallets at the end of February 2012.

Novo Packhouse will do contract packaging for selected clients in 2012, increasing the total client base from 42 000 bins to 100 000 bins.

The past season has seen a higher than expected demand for specialist packaging like bags and date coding and Novo has the ability to do both very effectively.

This modern and efficient building with its leading technology has and will continue to give Colors the leading edge in fruit grading and packing for a long time to come. It is clear to see by the packhouse’s performance that ‘Novo’ was a very fitting name indeed.

Visit COLORS at Fruit Logistica, HALL 5.2 STAND C-04 (Part of the South Africa Pavilion)

For further information:
Rudi du Toit
General Manager of Novo Packhouse
Tel: +27 (21) 860 8000
Email: [email protected]
www.colorsfruit.com