CherryHill Orchards has unveiled a new packhouse facility in Coldstream, Victoria.
Measuring over 4,000m2, with an additional mezzanine storage area, the facility has the capacity to wash, grade and pack in excess of 100 tonnes of cherries per day.
The site has been designed with staff comfort and wellbeing firmly in mind, with CherryHill expecting this to lead to better outcomes for product quality and productivity.
“Our old facility had run its course and offered no opportunity for expansion on the Wandin site,” said CherryHill Orchards director Stephen Riseborough.
“Additionally, staff safety was of concern with an old site, where poor worker and forklift traffic separation was an issue. The new facility is clean, very well lit, well insulated and quieter than many older facilities.”
International fresh produce machinery and technology specialist Unitec has handled the fit-out of the new facility, which includes the latest Unitec Vision technology for cherries. The technology uses high resolution cameras to grade each piece of fruit based on internal and external characteristics.
“From the moment of our very first testing this season, the Unitec technology showed defect sorting to the highest level,” Riseborough told Produce Plus at the facility’s grand opening in early November.
For Unitec, it is the first end-to-end installation it has made with cherries in Australia.
“It is a 100 per cent Unitec line, from unloading to packaging. This ensures consistent flow, as well as considerable improvement of the entire production process and efficiency in terms of production and cost reduction,” said Benedetta Ricci Iamino of Unitec.
“We take extreme care of all the process phases, so as to ensure our clients’ reliability and high performance in the processing of their cherries. In short, our main objective is our clients’ success.”
