Integrated solutions for increased quality and efficiency, reduced labor
{Sponsored} Financially, the potato industry is the same as any other industry. It’s simply about increasing revenue and lowering costs. Potato growers need the right resources to guide them when the time comes for major decision-making and big-picture planning.
With this in mind, large processors often take a team approach to looking at cost and revenue needs from field — to storage — to handling. The field group meets with the plant to understand how the flow of product to the processor can be improved.
When a project is determined to have significant value, key people including on-staff engineers, project managers and others work together to plan how the project will run and what kind of performance can be expected from the investment. So how is this decision-making process handled when an operation is running on a “lean and mean” basis?
Looking at another set of challenges — a seed grower sees demands for required sizing, portable skid mounted defect sorting, holding, and automated bulk bag filling. Seed growers have an opportunity to sell more and simultaneously use the same investment to lower costs. This may require the grower to upgrade and possibly restructure storage — even to the extent of segmenting into smaller bins and adding a bulk filling line with sizing and holding included.
In the specialty variety market, there is a need to increase pack-out by threefold to meet demand. By implementing freshpack line solutions, there is an opportunity to review costs. If product loss can be minimized or eliminated, investment needs for improvements can cost less.
Gellert saw all of these challenges and answered them with GellertFresh, an integrated approach with strategic partners for growers and freshpack.
GellertFresh is designed to deliver the team approach similar to what larger operations experience with their in-house staff. It offers turnkey optimization, targeting major parts of an entire operation that are forward-looking and fully resourced.
Integrated solutions almost always include best-in-class strategic partners that can offer the complete package. Our GellertFresh initiative was built for this purpose and includes a fully operational audit from field to storage to handling.
Dewulf Group, also home to the Miedema brand, has over 150 years of combined experience. They supply growers with quality equipment for soil cultivation, planting, harvesting, in-store, and grading of potatoes. Their solutions excel in reducing soil and waste — so more net product gets into storage. From the unloading of the trailer outside the storage through the filling of boxes or of the store floor in perfect layers, their machines are efficient, durable, and user and product friendly, as well as adaptable in size to growers’ needs.
Herbert Solutions offers proven freshpack engineering and equipment that simply performs and can adapt to what is coming from the field. Starting with 3D designs and layouts, the decision process may include visits to other companies’ facilities to see the various equipment working successfully. Whether a packing shed is looking to upgrade, improve, or add lines for additional varieties, Herbert’s handling is innovative. Often what happens in between the line is as important as the equipment on the line. Herbert’s packaging and end-of-line palletizing design can accumulate and reduce investment costs.
Gellert’s post-harvest expertise offers multiple designs and approaches to storage that competes globally and offers domestic manufacturing for affordability. Their control panel was built to report to all levels of an operation and provides data that can be used on its own or integrated into a software solution.
GellertFresh is ready to provide value to projects through a full range of integrated solutions.
For more information on GellertFresh, visit www.gellert.com or call 1.888.GELLERT.
© 2019 Gellert Company
