Two case studies show how it’s done

Case 1¾Sun Orchard Fruit Company, Burt, N.Y.

At Sun Orchard Fruit Company, Steve Riessen represents the third generation of the family that has owned this business. Situated in the heart of the Empire State’s Lake Ontario fruit plain, the company packs and ships more than 500,000 cartons of New York State apples every year.

Sun Orchard recently installed a state-of-the-art pre-size line, one of the most technologically advanced sorting systems in today’s apple industry. In an operation that is astounding to observe, the system electronically separates apples by grade, color, size and weight before the fruit arrives at the packing line.

Incredibly, the water-driven system very gently pre-sizes up to 30 bins per hour, and apples emerge with virtually no nicks, cuts or bruises at the end of the line. It features a four-lane electronic weight sizer and a digital color sorter, with capabilities for electronic defect and condition sorting in the future.

The process in more detail

Steve explained the process.

Basically, bins of orchard run apples, all different grades and sizes, are automatically sized, sorted and recaptured so each bin contains only apples of the same size, quality and grade. The process begins when a forklift operator places field containers at the start of the line. The apples are gently floated out of the bin and run past an initial grading line where two trained personnel inspect and remove below-grade fruit. After passing through an electronic sorter that weighs and separates each apple by size, the apples pass under high-resolution cameras for color sorting. The system then quickly moves sorted apples by quality and size to one of 11 flumes. They then are transported to a regroup flume and gently float into a hydro bin filler.

Once the cushioning water recedes from full bins, a robotic stacker moves forward to grab and stack them. This is all directed by computer, and the stacker keeps track of the color, size and grade of each bin it moves. The fruit is then immediately packed to fill an order or it is put back into storage to maintain freshness and flavor.

Four years of research — and a handsome payback

Steve and his management team spent four years researching and planning before investing in the pre-size line. Their former system sometimes impaired product quality by generating unneeded inventory that required storage until the product was sold. The new system allows for “just-in-time” shipping in response to product orders. Though Steve is very pleased with the pre-size line, he admits the capital outlay was large. He noted, “This was an enormous undertaking for a company of our size, but in our business, retailers are growing larger and there are fewer around. So it is more important than ever to control efficiencies, costs and turnaround and to provide the highest quality product and service.”

But the investment was well worth it. “The result,” he concludes, “is that we are more efficient today and can pack the highest quality apples much more economically. We can also accept orders that we simply couldn’t accept before. For example, we’re able to generate more export business.

Last year, we were typically limited to four export loads per week. Now we can comfortably process six.”

Sun Orchard and Farm Credit

Steve is equally enthusiastic about choosing Farm Credit of Western New York as his lender and working with senior Farm Credit loan officer Wil Harris. Steve says, “Farm Credit’s rates are very competitive plus Wil Harris is a great guy to work with. His understanding of agriculture and my business made the entire process a pleasure. He also knows the risks we face in agribusiness so I never had to explain them to him. Basically, we know agribusiness and Farm Credit knows how to lend to people who know agribusiness.”

Case 1 - Steve Riessen, Sun Orchard, Click here

Case 2 - Luke Brochu, Pleasant River Lumber Click here

Is NEW TECHNOLOGY in your future?  Click here

Main article  Click here

This article first appeared in the Summer 2005 issue of Financial Partner magazine. You can receive this FREE publication by clicking here.

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