UNITEC solutions are a great asset for a complex cherry campaign

UNITEC's advanced technological solutions, combined with the dedicated efforts of its team on site in Chile, enable customers to meet the challenges posed by one of the most complex cherry campaigns in recent years.

 

Chile expected a record cherry export season due to increased acreage, bbut the rainy winter and a spring marked by temperature fluctuations then during the harvest phase intense and prolonged rains caused significant damage in all production areas. Estimates of marketable production are revised from week to week.

 

Even more serious, all the batches harvested showed very significant damage, up to 70% of the total. Such a negative impact on the quality of the harvested product has not been observed in recent years. In this context, it is essential to use a precise and reliable quality selection system like UNITEC CHERRY Vision 3 which guarantees compliance with the very high quality standards demanded by the Far East markets, the main destination area for Chilean cherries.

 

In addition to adequate and efficient technologies like those provided by UNITEC, it is also vital for packaging sites to have the possibility to count on timely service, configure the software to new conditions, thus guaranteeing a timely result and in line with needs. Thanks to its Chilean subsidiary which now has 70 professionals on site and an equal number of specialized support technicians from the company's headquarters, UNITEC has made available to its Chilean customers, since the start of the campaign, its experience, its innovation and expertise.

 

This significant effort made it possible to avoid compromising the portion of the product still adapted to distant markets. It would have been impossible to achieve these results, in these very difficult conditions, without the automated and reliable solutions developed and implemented by UNITEC.

 

In addition to the usual work of supporting customers in the start-up phase of the installations, which is normally a race against time, this season there was the need for an additional manager to face an exceptional situation, faced with which the UNITEC team has succeeded, once again, in providing solid, reliable and therefore fruitful answers to its customers.

 

This campaign was also characterized by the introduction of important innovations in the range of integrated solutions that UNITEC makes available to the Chilean cherry industry. With the development of robotic solutions in the supply chain but also with the introduction of an absolute novelty at the end of the line, which is UNI Smart Seal, the automatic system for sealing bags containing cherries. UNI Smart Seal reduces the need for labor on the line by combining a drastic reduction in fruit handling, an improvement in the precision of operations and high productivity (up to 14 boxes per minute).

 

 

"Every year at UNITEC we approach the cherry campaign in Chile like a Formula 1 race, for which we prepare with dedication through punctual maintenance work and a lot of innovation every year. We want to arrive trained and ready for the start, where our team faces every challenge that comes their way with promptness, focus and passion. We set ourselves only one goal: to win with our customers, to overcome difficulties by bringing them the best possible result counts given the starting conditions. So, for us at UNITEC, winning means winning for our customers and for the Chilean industry in general" declared Nour Abdrabbo, director of the Unitec Chile branch and commercial director of the Group.