TOMRA Food closed the 2018 financial year while consolidating its position in Chile and it predicts 2019 will be excellent thanks to the country's good growth prospects. Johan Germeys, the Commercial Director for Latin America of TOMRA Food, and Paola Arevalo, Sales Manager of TOMRA Food Chile, spoke about their forecasts for the food market in the country.
TOMRA Food designs and manufactures sorting systems for a wide range of food applications, both for fresh and processed food. Thanks to its heavy focus on R + D + i, the company's sensor-based sorting machines guarantee excellent quality and performance, which translates into greater productivity and more efficient use of resources.
"TOMRA's optical classification helps our customers maximize their performance, increasing their accuracy and efficiency. Sensor-based technology is capable of processing large volumes of food and helps producers to select and reject foreign materials from the process. As a result: there is a decrease in the waste of material, benefits increase, and producers save a significant amount of time in relation to manual classification techniques. Therefore, the TOMRA Food machines are the most efficient way to classify products and are an intelligent investment," said Paola Arevalo, the Sales Manager of TOMRA Food Chile (pictured).
Chile, a benchmark in the Latin American market
TOMRA Food has extensive international experience with projects in more than 80 countries. Chile is the company's main market in Latin America, as it has been there for 18 years and has more than a hundred machines installed at full capacity in the country.
"Chile is a sea of opportunities and its main challenge is to maintain the pace of modernization and automation it has already started. TOMRA's new technology allows producers of fresh and processed foods to increase their the quality standards. This technology can be used by a multitude of sectors, such as nuts, seafood, dehydrated fruits, seeds, vegetables, fruits, or potatoes," says Johan Germeys.
The forecasts for the nut market are still very positive. "Chile's nut market is, no doubt, enjoying an excellent growth. It is a high quality product that in 2018 produced a record 130 thousand tons and a turnover of over 500 million dollars. In the next 5 years the country's production capacity will double and this greater availability of nuts will require technology for its adequate processing. TOMRA Food has the best equipment for it," says Paola Arevalo.
The advantages of TOMRA solutions, customized for a multitude of products
From nuts and dried fruits to seafood and vegetables, TOMRA Food offers a solution for each product through a broad portfolio of models. The company's Helius, Nimbus, Genius, Blizzard, Halo, ZEA, and Sentinel II classifiers have already become references for the Chilean market.
While the models or technology are specific to each type of product, the advantages offered by TOMRA are always the same. In the words of Paola Arevalo, "TOMRA technology increases the level of purity of the products. This increases the export capacity of our customers, who can meet the demands of international markets, and also improves their returns."
A growing local team, with experience in the market and an excellent technical service
"TOMRA has a team of specialized technicians in Chile that are capable of analyzing which are the best solutions for each type of plant in the country. In addition, this team of experts allows the company to give its customers very personalized service as no plants or products are alike for TOMRA; each one has its own characteristics. The goal is to guide potential customers to a viable alternative, so they can maximize results and achieve a return on investment as quickly as possible," stated the commercial manager of TOMRA Chile.
"For us it is essential to understand our customers and provide them value, not only in the accuracy of the classification, but also ensuring the operational availability of the machine and that our equipment always offer optimal results. Thus, we have invested in a warehouse of critical spare parts that allow us to offer our customers a fast after-sales service. We are also strengthening our technical team to guarantee we can supply the demand of the Chilean market," added Johan Germeys (above in the photo).
Technological leadership, food security and digital transformation, the pillars of TOMRA technology
TOMRA offers unique technical solutions. "Our ability to combine different classification technologies, such as: color cameras, near infrared, or NIR, spectroscopy and laser detection, make a difference," says Paola Arevalo.
The company bases its global success on 3 pillars. Thanks to its technological leadership, TOMRA Food allows producers of nuts, vegetables, fruits and potatoes (among others) to improve their accuracy, efficiency, and profitability. To help brands offer food safety and protect their prestige, TOMRA helps its customers ensure their food complies with high quality, hygiene, and traceability standards. Finally, thanks to the digital transformation, the analysis of the data collected by the TOMRA Food machines helps producers analyze the production process, improving its efficiency and reducing operating costs.
"In the medium term we want to strengthen our presence in the country in those segments where we already have a clear leadership position. My challenge? Opening new segments that can benefit from our innovative technology," said Paola Arevalo.
More information:
TOMRA Food
Paola Lucero
Tel .: +56 9 3380 0589
E-mail: Paola.Arevalo@tomra.com
Web: www.tomra.com/food