Eastpack's new $12.8 million, high-tech, high-speed kiwifruit packing facility now awaits only one thing – the arrival of the new season’s fruit.
The facility, opened by Prime Minister Bill English, is a major advance on a Te Puke site that only six years ago was mothballed with a skeleton staff as the industry reeled from vastly reduced fruit volumes in the wake of the Psa virus.
While rain had delayed the harvest this season, the site was poised for an intense rush of SunGold fruit initially, employing 600 staff across two shifts packing 100,000 trays of fruit a shift.
The site’s capacity boost this year came from the commissioning of EastPack’s 14 lane Bravo sorting and packing line installed alongside the existing Alpha machine. It would take the company’s capacity at the site from 6m trays last year to 10.5m.
Site manager Matt Bowker said once initial commissioning and teething issues were sorted that would rise to 12 m trays next year, keeping the company well ahead of the expected surge in SunGold fruit expected as new plantings came to harvest next year and beyond.
With wet weather delaying harvest in Bay of Plenty, he likened the plant’s processing profile to that of a sharply shaped peak, describing the site as a “sprint shed” when the harvest hit full pace.
The plant was designed with that in mind, incorporating levels of technology capable of dealing with 7500 fruit a minute while also meeting Zespri’s high export standards for grade one fruit.
A key part of the plant’s technology was the use of Spectrim digital photographic equipment that scanned and photographed every piece of fruit passing through the 14 lanes. That amounted to 1m photographs a minute being taken, with the ability to capture images in colour and two different infrared spectrums.
“The equipment can essentially create a 3D image of the fruit for evaluation and gets taught by us what to look for in terms of imperfections.
“Because we now have this technology across three sites, we are also able to share what we already know between machines and keep all sites updated on grade issues,” Bowker said.
In addition, the grader was equipped with near infra-red grading technology, often referred to as the “dark art” of fruit grading for its ability to determine what the fruit’s interior and eating quality was like.
“It is basically a light spectrometer that shines onto the fruit and measures the frequency of the light through it, coming up with four key quality parameters – fruit firmness, brix (sugar) levels, internal flesh colour and dry matter.”
Combined with data on weight, a profile of the fruit’s quality could be determined.
It was invaluable, particularly at the early part of the season when growers wanted to capitalise on the Kiwistart early harvest bonuses but had to be wary of smaller fruit struggling to make the required brix and drymatter levels to be eligible.
“Near infra-red has enabled us to extract the fruit that does meet the standards for growers who otherwise may not have had any or very little be eligible from their orchard, giving them a significantly greater return than they would otherwise have had.”
Investment in the boosted capacity came as Zespri continued to offer 400ha tranches of SunGold licences to growers for the next four years, with that area alone generating an extra 6m trays a year once reaching full maturity.
Expectations for this season were for 30-40m trays of the prolifically fruiting SunGold variety and 60m of Green.
Bowker said despite the high level of automation in the plant, there was still a need for good staff in the operation, with a stable source of Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) staff from the Pacific Islands returning year after year.
“We now have people who have a good level of skills and have moved up the ranks to be team leaders and operators and proven exceptional to have on board.”
EastPack has had to reinforce the increased grading capacity with an extra $10m spent on cool-store capacity, taking the entire investment on the site to $25m.
“Since I started in late 2014 the company has invested $50m across all its facilities, ensuring we have capacity ahead of time to deal with fruit volumes,” Bowker said.
