An increased trend towards final packing at source, whether it is the resurgence of apple flowwrapping or blueberries into clam shells and punnets, increases the returns that growers can realise, says Rory Cole of Flowpack Systems, South African agent for Elifab Sorting technology and Redpack Flow-wrapping Machines UK.
In Zimbabwe, where blueberry packlines are running at full tilt, investment in this lucrative fruit will continue for a while still, he observes.
"Zimbabwe is an important market for us, as important as South Africa," he says. "Zimbabwean growers have very good expertise in farming. They have some challenges, as a landlocked country with no port of its own, but I would say their conditions outweigh those challenges, especially their early market access through which they get great prices, filling the gap between the Northern Hemisphere that's tailing off and the Southern Hemisphere season start. And as soon as access to China and more countries in the East open, it's going to explode."
The MXL 12 autofiller, which Flowpack Systems will shortly install in Zimbabwe
The Versasort cup sizers are manufactured in South Africa, and all run on Ellips grading software.
"We get a lot of requests for extra equipment and new solutions for packing and grading, sizing, and automated punnet fillers. As the market keeps changing and as a packhouse equipment supplier, you need to be ready to supply different solutions to customers as the balance between packing bulk and final pack orders into clamshells or punnets keeps shifting," he says.
"If you've got a facility that can grade and sort and then basically put it into a final pack punnet, you get margins on that. One of the advantages of optical sizers is that you can split your grades, enabling you to use as close to 100% of your product as possible."
As an example, he says, a slightly softer berry can be put into an IQF class, and in this way, the entire crop finds a home. "There's been a lot of requests for solutions for frozen berries."
For more information:
Rory Cole
Flowpack Systems
Tel: +27 82 294 2260
Email: [email protected]
https://www.flowpack.co.za/
https://fruitsizers.co.za/