As the cost of production rises and further obstacles are thrown in the way of fruit and vegetable growers in the UK in the shape of pesticide regulations and chemical control, the industry is looking more and more towards the techniques and ideas used behind the scenes to give them a competitive and a financial edge.
On the whole, as the industry has consolidated, growers and suppliers to UK supermarkets have become larger and their needs more varied. More complex technology and machinery has come onto the scene to cope with larger volumes and higher standards of quality control.
In the past, machinery has been smaller and less complex, including single-row harvesters, low-capacity farm graders and a good deal of bulk storage, with relatively small packhouses, low-capacity washing lines and packing machines. But traceability is now the issue of the day and growers need a team of technologists and machinery manufacturers to hit the high standards demanded by the multiples.
Now, particularly in the UK potato industry, more larger specialist producers are growing one product exclusively on contracted land for specific markets for packers and processors. In the soft-fruit arena, the move from using ground systems to table-top production has meant yield increases and advantages in the ergonomics of hand harvesting, along with much-needed varietal improvements. And over the years, the increase in salad, namely lettuce, production in the UK has also encouraged necessary production and packing procedures.
Packaging machinery is constantly changing, and the introduction of heat-sealed films rather than conventional lids has made the process a much quicker and cost-efficient one. Heat-sealed films also use less packaging and enables the film to be pre-printed and date coded.
RJ Herbert Engineering supplies root crop manufacturing equipment and its product range includes packing, grading and washing equipment for potato packhouse installations. The company’s technical consultant, Dr Harmut Gall, has noticed that the larger businesses are moving ahead when it comes to technology.
“Key multi-site operations for processing and packing have the advantage of more capacity to invest in automation and high-capacity packing,” he says. “This does mean fewer market opportunities for growers.
“We have a period of established migrant labour in the UK and ever-changing environmental and administrative restrictions and laws are set up making the business more complicated. High investments are necessary, for example for waste handling, and the price of energy has risen sharply in the last few years and become a more important factor in the calculation of companies.
Due to changing economics and politics, he says, the availability of migrant labour can change rapidly and force more automation.
“The further increase of energy cost is definitive. Therefore, energy efficiency of all processes has to increase. All the procedures from farming to processing will be under consideration.”
Crop Solutions’ Ian Campbell believes that the main issues affecting UK production techniques are the disappearance of certain chemicals and pesticides, as well as insufficient price returns from the UK supermarkets.
“Pests and diseases are constantly changing and pesticides are being removed all the time, so growers need different solutions,” he explains. “But the problem is that the price of chemicals, crop covers, labour and fuel have all been rising and the major multiples are not paying enough for the product. We supply all around the EU and growers in other countries are getting much more for their product. And ultimately, alternative methods of producing and supplying fruit and vegetables mean higher-cost solutions that growers struggle to afford. We have some of the best producers in the world in this country and some of the best quality fruit and vegetables, but it will all disappear if the industry is not supported.”
Crop Solutions provides the soft-fruit and vegetable industry with fleeces, insect nets, mulch, groundcovers, pegs and machinery for rolling up and unrolling crop covers and polythene. In the soft-fruit sector, the company has had to adapt to the industry’s move to table-top production. “This year, we have provided a fleece that can cover table-top,” Campbell says. “The system makes the product easier to pick, but because the temperatures were low at the start of the year, the fruit suffered more from frost than it would have on the ground. Due to the plants being elevated, the frost does not have to go through the ground to get to the plants’ roots and can hit the crop from all areas. People have lost a fortune this year, so we looked at a solution and came up with Fiberweb, which covers the entire table top.”
As the UK produces more and more leafy salads, new production problems have arisen. According to Campbell, there has been a huge amount of pigeon damage, which has been costing supermarket suppliers considerable sums of money.
“We have had a huge demand for our new bird net,” he confirms. “Growers can reuse the net up to six times a year and it provides a lightweight shelter for the crops. The supermarkets are looking for higher standards all the time and want product without a mark on it.
Another company that deals with the UK industry a little further along the supply chain is sorting machine specialist Greefa. Based in the Netherlands, the company is one of the main suppliers of sorting machinery for the UK apple and pear industry and export manager for the UK, Marco Schreuders, believes listening to the industry is key.
“We make machinery that adds value in the packhouse, so we need to listen to our customers and provide what they want us to,” he says. “It is a very difficult thing to do as different customers want different things. But what we are noticing is that the scarcity of labour and increase in the size of both businesses and the volume that they handle in the UK translates to larger, more complicated machinery.”
Greefa’s sorting machine Geosort III, which was originally developed in 2000 for top fruit, is now widely used in the UK industry and the company has recently introduced the Combisort that has been built to accommodate larger fruit sizes. “We use a light-emitting diode (LED) so output in the packhouse is more controlled. Our customers need to know that what they are sending to the supermarket is a certain quality. The bruises will only show up on the shelf, so sorting machinery has to be especially delicate.”
THE FUTURE IS AUTOMATED
The key is the efficient use of resources, in terms of produce, facilities and energy, writes RJ Herbert Engineering’s technical consultant, Dr Harmut Gall, pictured. We will see a highly automated industry from the grower to the factory and a maximised utilisation of the biological material harvested from the field.
We will see consideration of energy use from field to table to offset transport and handling and part of that will be growing, cleaning and sorting on growers’ sites.
Quality sorting on unwashed potatoes will improve efficiency of storage and process lines and different products, especially prepared food for consumption, will be on the market.
Multiple row harvesters and 1.8-2.4m-wide farm graders are increasing the harvesting rates, and variable weather requires a higher intake rate to guarantee good quality.
Today, we have predominantly box storage and more air-conditioned stores, which allows a higher quality storage, automation and traceability.
The capacity of washing lines has increased to about 25-35t/hr. Optical sorting of washed potatoes is on the way into the packing industry, as well as optical grading in the processing sector for the quality grading of processed products. Packing machines now reach 80 packs/minute.
Full traceability automation in processing factories and in packing lines is now on an advanced level and water and waste handling is an important but expensive factor in the processing and packing industry today.
But not everything done is progress, especially under the changing conditions in the UK and the world. The scale of transporting potatoes up and down the country has reached a high level. The rising demand for higher quality means we have year-round new potatoes and more import activity. The high volume wash and packing lines run at faster speeds and cause a higher risk of mechanical damage and shorter shelf life. The production of waste has risen with the quality standards and is an expensive factor. The industry consumes much higher resources of energy and water, and quite often the temptation is to handle the potatoes out of the acceptable range of temperature and at speeds that may cause damage and reduce quality.
So, where are we going? The trend is for even bigger specialist growers. These producers may take on pre-washing and deliver pre-sorted potatoes for processors and packers. That will reduce transportation of out-grade material. This will also help processors and packers to increase their plant efficiency by having less waste.
A further decline of the traditional fresh pack will happen. The statistics demonstrate a reduction on fresh packed produce with a matching increase in processed consumption. New pack styles for prepared food will be developed and packers will also move forward into the prepared food market.
The trend to outsource sizing, sorting, cleaning and washing potatoes will continue and grow. The processors and packers find it progressively hard to accommodate high wastage potatoes. They have to deal with more products, so they need to save space somewhere else. As an effect, transport and storage can be reduced.
A further increase in the speed of packing machines is very likely, nevertheless care will be needed to achieve that because of the mechanical impact on potatoes. A higher percentage of the potatoes coming into the packing plant or processing factories will be used for different products and also to reduce waste.
The efficiency of using energy will increase by the steps described so far supported also by modern motor drives and system control units offering large energy savings in factories.
MARCO’S SIXTH YEAR AT FRUIT FOCUS
Packhouse profitability specialist Marco will be using this year’s Fruit Focus event on 21 July to launch its new Production Control Module (PCM), specifically designed to eliminate errors in the printing and labelling of packed product.
Packers are only too aware of the costs associated with incorrectly labelled product leaving the packhouse, which can be significant and very damaging to their reputation and brand. Marco believes that PCM overcomes these problems by co-ordinating the set up of printers and scanners from a central location. Any labels brought from the print room for a particular run are automatically checked before they go on the line, while further ongoing checks via line scanners ensure 100 per cent labelling security.
Marco’s managing director Murray Hilborne is confident that Fruit Focus is the right platform to launch this latest innovation: “Fruit Focus is always a fantastic opportunity to meet with new and existing customers away from the packhouse, making this show the ideal platform to introduce innovative solutions for soft-fruit packers. The adoption of our latest PCM is already in progress within the soft-fruit industry and we are confident that this module will be of great benefit and interest to show visitors.”
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