Compac: Focus on weighing, color and defect sorting solutions

Editor’s Note: Developed countries, such as America and the European nations,always attach great importance to preserving agricultural products, where 70% of agricultural investment is spent on post-harvest applications to ensure the added value of crops and the full utilization of farm products. On the other side, in developing countries, the public’s living standards and health consciousness are growing, and their demand for high-quality farm products is also growing, especially for vegetable and fruit, which drives the continued development of post-harvest applications. Furthermore, the food wastage challenge worldwide is an important engine which propels the development of post-harvest preservation technologies.

In view of the important position of post-harvest application techniques in the agricultural supply chain, AgroPages recently invited industry leaders, including AgroFresh Solution, Decco Worldwide Post-Harvest Holding and Compac, to introduce the latest post-harvest solutions, business mode/industrial advantages, as well as future planning etc. The interview details of Compac are as follow:

Q. Could you briefly introduce the global market situation of post-harvest solutions and services to the fresh produce industry?

The fresh produce industry is growing and changing rapidly. An increasing population combined with healthy lifestyle trends and changing consumer behaviors has created a highly competitive environment for quality produce. The $5 trillion food and agribusiness industry will need to meet a 70% increase in caloric demand by 2050.

Additionally there is a strong swing away from processed foods to fresh produce where consumers have a desire to understand where their particular piece of fruit came from.

Consumers want high quality produce, delivered in a convenient way, with availability 365 days of the year. This is leading to many new innovations in the marketing and supply of fresh produce. Other interesting trends include the growth of online purchasing of fresh produce as well as fresh fruit and vegetable snacks becoming more and more popular.

Q. Could you please briefly introduce Compac’s general situation and industrial competitiveness？

Compac is leading global post-harvest solutions and services to the fresh produce industry. Compac was started 32 years ago in New Zealand building electronic sizers for the kiwifruit industry. Today we are globally recognized as providing the highest performing weighing, color and defect sorting solutions. In the last year, Compac’s global revenue has increased by over 40% and our largest market is America where we are the number one supplier.

We enable some of the world’s most recognized fresh produce brands, including Sunkist®, Halos™, Mr. Apple and Zespri® Kiwifruit to deliver consistently high-quality produce to consumers. Our solutions allow customers to accurately grade and pack fresh produce at high volume, ensure quality, safety and traceability, and improve operational efficiency and margins.

Compac sorters are the heart of the largest and most sophisticated packing lines in the world; and we find ourselves being connected to world’s best peripherals, be it specialist equipment for a specific industry, or the world’s best materials-handling, conveying and palletizing equipment from outside the food industry.

Our focus in research and development established us against our competitions whilst our continued investment keeps us one step ahead. Working in partnership with our customers is changing the landscape competitively and our developing centers of excellence provide our customers with extra support.

Q. Could you please talk about Compac’s post-harvest solutions and services and its advantages?

Our sorters are recognized for their robustness, gentle handling and flexible platforms. When combined with our defect sorting solutions (both internal and external) customers have powerful world class post-harvest solutions in their packhouses,which deliver operational performance gains.

Inspectra is a non-invasive internal quality sorting system which integrates into the Compac sorter and runs at production line speeds, gathering information about internal quality defects. We were the first company to commercialize NIR internal quality sorting in the fresh produce industry and we maintain a dedicated research and development team who continue to refine the technology.

Inspectra’s software allows simultaneous removal of multiple defects at once such as water core, internal browning and soft fruit. Many other systems must be targeted to one specific defect potentially allowing other defects to pass undetected.

Spectrim is our revolutionary new modular and upgradeable optical sorting platform, incorporating break-through advances in defect detection, classification and operator ease of use. Through advanced machine-learning algorithms, Spectrim automates complex tasks operators normally have to conduct manually, and reduces the need for many labor-intensive defect-related processes. Machine learning technology also helps eliminate variations in grading outcomes caused by inconsistent approaches traditionally associated with differing human operators.

With the ability to take up to 500 high definition images of a single piece of fruit as it passes through the machine at a rate of 12 pieces of fruit a second, Spectrim detects the hardest to find, external blemishes on fruit, delivering unrivalled grading accuracy and consistency.

The Spectrim cabinet has also been designed with the latest food hygiene standards in mind, using the latest materials and industrial design to enable ease of cleaning and ongoing maintenance.

Supplementing these world class products, Compac also provides world class services, including project maintenance which is on demand and professional. A number of these are already commercialized and highly regarded by our customers, such as Compac U and remote support.

Q. Could you briefly describe your target customers and markets?

We partner with the world’s leading packhouses, where our sorting accuracy and superior fruit handling set us apart.

The majority of our customers operate in high volume growth areas for fruits such as apples, citrus and kiwifruit.

We partner with customers who are serious about:

•    Quality and consistency of produce
•    Protectingand enhancing their brand
•    Integrated solutions using best in class technology
•    Harnessing data throughout their business
•    Food safety and traceability

Our core markets include North America, New Zealand and Australia; with growing customer bases in China, South Africa, Europeand South America. China is an important market to Compac and we have invested heavily into establishing a local manufacturing facility and support team locally.

Q. What are your expectations and future plannings?

We are focused on growing our extensive installed global customer base and developing a complete, integrated post-harvest solution. This will encompass world-class services, training, technology and best-of-breed equipment to meet all of our customers’ evolving post-harvest needs, allowing them to drive the highest return for their business.

The next few years will see centers of excellence continuing to be deployed. Located in global commodity hot-spots, these centers will be information and expertise hubs specializing in a certain fruit type, such as citrus in California’s Central Valley and kiwifruit in New Zealand’s Bay of Plenty. They will further R&D capability and cement Compac as a thought leader in the industry.

In addition, we understand the importance of food safety and through participation in industry groups and partnerships with industry leaders such as Wawona and Professional Produce has created the ‘Food Hygiene’ program.

The first goal of this program is to protect and enhance the customer brand by reducing contamination risk through improved hygienic design and material selection, and improving the tractability of produce that passes across our equipment.

Our world class global service offering and quality defect sorting (internal and external) solutions will enable us to continuing to lead the fresh produce industry.