The heat has certainly been on here at Jenkins Freshpac Systems to ensure that all our customers have the right products on time to start their seasons with long hours being put in by all. The apple and kiwifruit seasons have certainly got off to flying starts with kiwifruit demand for products up to a fortnight earlier than this time last year and with the dry summer our expectations are for great tasting fruit. The first of over a hundred ships full of kiwifruit has departed, it is all go!
Even with all this going on, I was fortunate enough to be able to get across to Auspack in Melbourne to check out what the latest trends are in food processing and catch up with Proseal (JFS is Proseal’s NZ agent) along with other partners and suppliers.
Proseal were nominated for one of the Australian Packaging and Processing Machinery Association (APPMA) Awards of Excellence and I am pleased to say that they took out the award in the Customer Collaboration Category. The award was for its work done with its customer Fresh Berry and packaging partner CKF (JFS is CKF’s distributor in NZ) for a strawberry pack the reduced the amount of plastic by as much as 96%.
Fresh produce packaging has been revolutionised in other parts of the world over recent years. Tesco, M&S and Sainsbury are all using top seal packaging for fruits and vegetables in the UK – there is barely a clamshell in sight! While slower to get started, North American companies have been show casing top seal punnets with berries, tomatoes and other fresh produce at various produce conferences and exhibitions for the last few years with great success. There is also a clear theme of top seal being in the finalists and winners at various produce packaging competitions across the globe and it has now been recognised in Australia. The question is when are growers, packers and retailers in NZ going to start appreciating the benefits of top seal packaging.
International research has confirmed that the majority of consumers have a preference for top seal packaging over the other more traditional formats. This preference increases to 77% when consumers find out that they can save at least 30% in the volume of packaging materials.
The trend is not just led by the desire to change things up, there are a raft of benefits to top seal that New Zealand could be leveraging for both domestic and offshore markets, the list is long so give me a call or email if you want to know more about both the technical and consumer-centric benefits with this pack format…
The icing on the cake is that in many of our installations we are seeing our Proseal equipment slot into place with minimal plant modifications and the equipment is up and running in as little as a couple of hours in some cases. The team at JFS have calculators to assist in establishing payback periods and equipment can be rented or leased to trial for part of or a whole season before committing further – try before you buy!
Want your products flying off the shelf? Talk to me about the options for giving your product a facelift.