| 85 Karen Phelps Help on oer for blueberries Maungatapere Packing use a top-of-the-line TOMRA Fresh KATO260 packing line. Maungatapere Packing Limited REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT Blueberries present a great economic opportunity for Northland, and Maungatapere Packing is ready to help growers – both existing and new – by providing a variety of post-harvest and support services. “There is a huge amount of really good quality ȵat land here in Northland, and with the recent investment in water storage projects a lot of land is being unlocked for horticulture use. We see a really big opportunity in Northland for blueberries, especially early season fruit, to keep expanding the production window of blueberries in New Zealand,” says company director Patrick Malley. Maungatapere Packing has invested in equipment and technology so that it can take care of growers’ fruit right from the point of harvest. “We can supply our growers with totes that they can harvest into, each with an individual Dataphyll RFID tag that can measure the performance of each picker and provide full product traceability. Software like this provides us with a high level of confidence in terms of food safety and traceability.” Patrick says a good example of how this might be useful is when it helps pinpoint an individual worker that is picking under-ripe or over-ripe fruit, or damaging fruit during the harvest, and growers can then go back and provide further training and support to that employee. Also if there are any risks of food bourn illness from a picker, they can quickly identify every item that has been picked and remove it from the supply chain before it is tipped onto the grading machine Other technology employed by Maungatapere Packing includes a top-of-the-line TOMRA Fresh KATO260 packing line with a LUKAi camera grading system, using visible light and near-infrared technology, that can look at every single piece of fruit and then determine where it should go – fresh, frozen or waste for example. The system can eɝciently optically sort, grade and pack berries at up to 260 berries per second. “It means we can be really consistent about grading every single berry that goes across that line. The AI system can look at both real and infrared light on the berry to identify maternal defects as well. Ζt definitely represents a massive improvement compared with how we were grading fruit even five years ago.ȋ Maungatapere Packing has also partnered with well-known horticulture software provider Radfords to manage fruit movements, quality checking and assessment to trace everything once it’s been packed from packhouse all the way through to market. “We believe that consumers should have confidence in where their food has come from, that it has been handled well and that it is safe to eat, and we want to give that level of assurance to our retail partners and grower suppliers.” Continued investment in technology is backed by investment in additional services, the latest being a pollen milling service for kiwifruit growers. For those looking to commercialise their male vines Maungatapere Packing can mill, and even market, pollen on behalf of growers. YOUR LOCAL IT SERVICES PROVIDER. WE DON’T CLOSE DEALS; WE BUILD RELATIONSHIPS. NATC - Proudly supporting Maungatapere Packing Ltd. 09 930 6930 hello@natc.co.nz Managed IT Support · Cyber Security Business Intelligence · Cloud Computing ا Iǿprove productivitɯ خ ا weet coǿpliance oƦligations easilɯ خ ا weasure picker perǏorǿance to the last Ʀerrɯ خ ا Incentivise ɩorkers paid on perǏorǿance خ Bigger harvest, better quality fruit. HARVEST MORE WITH LESS Dataphyll Grow is the ultiǿate orchard & harvest ǿanageǿent soǏtɩare solution Ʀɯ groɩers, Ǐor groɩers ب Call Christoph on 027 445 8095 or email christoph@dataphyll.com for a no obligations chat. hello@mpack.nz www.mpack.nz 570 Mangakahia Road, RD9 Poroti, Whangarei Maungatapere Packing is a horticultural packing operation providing a variety of post-harvest and support services to Northland growers and producers. We specialise in blueberry post-harvest and kiwifruit flower milling services, and look to support the growth and development of the wider horticultural sector throughout Northland. Packing Goodness - Excellence In Every Pack!
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