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Fresh Produce: Strapped, Sealed, Delivered: The Standards of Packaging in the Fresh Produce Industry

The U.S. fresh produce industry surpassed a market size of $96 billion in 2023. It is expected to reach $127 billion by 2030. When a market moving unique fresh-food products is this big, it requires a complex and sophisticated system to ensure that fruits or vegetables get from farm to table as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Part of that process requires effective packaging. We’ll examine how fresh produce packaging solutions like those offered by EAM-Mosca play an essential role in keeping fruits and vegetables fresh and safe as they move from the farm to a distribution center or store and finally to the homefront.

 

How Does the Fresh Produce Industry Work?

The 21st century has seen a modern resurgence in consumer demand for fresh fruits and veggies. This has challenged traditional, centralized distribution models. It pushes distributors and retailers to consider different ways to get farm-fresh products to retailers as quickly as possible.

The fresh produce production process starts with harvesting, cleaning, and grading food. With fresh produce, it’s important to adopt a FIFO (first in, first out) system to avoid spoiling. Once the food is ready for distribution, in most cases, one of three supply chain options is used:

  • National chains supply retailers with products in bulk from regional distribution centers.
  • Independent grocery chains offering a stand-alone grocery experience source fresh produce on a local or smaller geographical scale.
  • Specialty stores operate individually and offer unique, often local options.

As these fresh produce supply chains become more decentralized and complex, it is easier for costs to increase and deliveries to become more challenging. This makes timely and efficient distribution essential.

Some retailers will skip steps by creating farm-to-store channels for more direct delivery. However, this requires greater resources on an individual store level. Others work with grocery distributors, who function as middlemen, bringing together farmers, producers, and importers and connecting them with retail grocery store networks.

 

Seasonal Swings and Food Miles

Different foods are harvested throughout the year depending on factors such as geography and weather. This creates seasonal swings in supply and demand. During peak seasons, it is paramount that fruit and vegetables move through the system rapidly despite an increase in volume.

Food miles are also a consideration. How far must food move before it reaches a consumer? Many of the biggest fresh produce items come from certain regions. Citrus fruits, for example, are most concentrated in Mexico and the southeastern United States. Apples often come from Washington State. Avocados are commonly grown in Mexico and California. More exotic fruits have to ship all the way from Central and South America.

The longer the distance, the more important efficiency and packaging integrity become. Packaging automation allows farmers and distributors to distribute fresh produce quickly by optimizing activities, such as the pallet strapping process, and keeping fresh food moving in a reliable and affordable manner before it goes bad.

 

Packaging Fresh Produce

There are various ways to package fresh produce. Most often, these are stored in corrugated boxes and palletized. However, if a pallet travels internationally, it requires more robust packaging to account for the wear of longer travel.

Even when packaged domestically, pallets of fruits and vegetables are often brought to fresh produce distribution centers within the geography where they were produced. This gives distributors the ability to properly strap and secure pallets before they are moved longer distances, either to retailers, other distribution centers, or across international borders.

When traveling between countries, fresh produce is often repackaged close to the port of entry. In the U.S., this is typically in states such as Texas and Arizona and major metropolitan areas.

 

Strapping Solutions for the Fresh Produce Industry

It is essential that efficient and effective strapping solutions are used when packaging, repackaging, and distributing fresh fruits and vegetables. This creates a dependable supply chain that maintains speed and reliability. This is where EAM-Mosca’s trusted strapping solutions play an important role. 

 

The Reisopack 2905: A Fresh Produce Strapping Titan

EAM-Mosca’s Reisopack 2905 is the best in class for fresh produce industry strapping. Its function is uniquely suited to the strapping need of pallets of delicate produce in fragile cardboard boxes.

The Reisopack 2905 automatically straps each pallet horizontally without human assistance. In addition, vertical corner boards are applied to create greater stability and load integrity and protect the vertical angles of container edges from external pressure. 

This automated end-of-line packaging solution reduces the manual labor required to keep fresh produce processed, packaged, and moving through the supply chain. The Reisopack 2905 impressive 70-pallets-per-hour output also bolsters load stability, reduces damage in transit, and ensures strapping never adds significant time to the fresh produce packaging and distribution process.

 

Reisopack’s 2820: Fast and Consistent Manual Strapping

Another popular strapping solution, the Reisopack 2820 is a mobile option that speeds up the manual strapping process. The unit is portable and uses rechargeable batteries. A single operator can move it to a pallet and manually apply horizontal straps up to nearly eight feet in height.

The semi-automatic machine significantly speeds up the strapping process for each fresh produce load. It straps consistently and provides a higher degree of strapping quality compared to manual strapping.

While the Reisopack 2905 and 2820 horizontal strappers are common choices, they are far from the only solutions. EAM-Mosca offers a wide variety of strapping solutions for the fresh produce industry. Each one addresses different needs that commonly arise across the fresh produce landscape. If you are unsure which one would suit your packaging needs best, our team can help you find the best option for your particular production line.

 

Maintaining Momentum Through Efficient Packaging in the Fresh Produce Industry

There are few industries with more pressure to keep products moving than the fresh produce industry. Fruits and vegetables typically have weeks if not days before they spoil. This makes efficient and trustworthy packaging an essential step in distributing fresh produce.

EAM-Mosca’s automatic and semi-automatic strapping solutions provide efficient best-in-class strapping solutions that reduce required time and resources and minimize human error. They enhance the fresh produce production and distribution process, ensuring that each pallet is able to quickly and safely move along the supply chain.

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