With the Northern Hemisphere cherry season coming to an end, Tomra Food is already looking ahead, ready to support growers in the Southern Hemisphere.

Paul Slupecki, VP, head of global sales Tomra Fresh Food at Tomra Food said it has been a complex season in terms of quality that reduced the volume of cherries on the market.

“Tomra Food, with its full range of sorting, grading and packing solutions for cherries, has worked side by side with its customers in this area.

He said "Every Resource Counts" – cherries in this case – is not a simple slogan for Tomra Food, but a serious commitment to minimise food waste, within a real food "revolution" that involves the entire supply chain.

“It’s a revolution that leverages the latest generation of cherry technology that has been developed starting from the real needs of the fruit industry.

“Over the past 12 months, a team of the Tomra Food experts has travelled to the main cherry growing areas of the world, working closely with its customers to understand how to help them improve yields, minimise waste, lower labour costs and find answers to ongoing challenges, the needs of future markets and the highest quality requirements.”

In response to its customer’s needs, Tomra Food has launched new updates and improvements to the existing cherry selection platform, Invision2, and has developed two new products on the market (Cascade Singulator and KETE16).

Tomra Invision2 has been further enhanced to improve cherry sorting and grading. 

Mr Slupecki said these solutions provide answers to the needs of gentle handling, difficulties in finding skilled labour, flexibility in processing and an increase in packaging costs.

“Cascade Singulator achieves a clean and even separation without the risk of tearing the cherries. Its new method improves separation location nearer to the knuckle where two cherries join,” he said.

The first machine was sold to Polehn Farms, a leading cherry producer in Oregon, USA. This highly regarded family-owned business, which has been packing cherries since 1989, typically handles 2000 tons of cherries annually and has just ended its second season using the Cascade Singulator.

Ken Polehn, co-owner of Polehn Farms with his wife Liz, said: "We hoped Tomra Fresh Food's new machine might reduce maintenance requirements on the line, make the working environment safer, and reduce the mechanical damage to fruit.

“The Cascade Singulator has certainly met all of those objectives. The reduction in mechanical damage to the fruit is significant, better than we could have expected.

“There are fewer clogs on the line, so that we've removed bottlenecks in our production process. This machine is quieter, gentler, and safer to work on than traditional cutters.

“And whereas the cleaning time on a cluster cutter is seven man-hours per day, with the Cascade Singulator, it's just one-and-a-half man-hours per day. This machine is a game-changer that will revolutionise the cherry industry."

Mr Slupecki said the KETE16, which is ideal for cherries and other products, automates the process of placing punnets and clamshells into cases, trays, boxes, and crates.

“Manual case packing is a strain on space, lacks consistency, and requires too much labour. The KETE16 is an excellent solution for the packing industry, as it removes any unnecessary contact point and provides certainty that you will deliver consistent product at speed.

“The KETE16 equipment distributes one product stream into four staging areas, picking up the packages from underneath to gently place them into trays or boxes. The design of the technology is suitable to automate both small- and large-scale operations.

“The versatility and throughput speed of the KETE16 system provide cherry customers with capabilities that the industry has never seen before,” Mr Slupecki said.

“No other robotic packaging equipment on the market supports such a wide range of packaging formats, and the ability to operate with them at such high speeds.”