Australian fruit producer installs grading technology by TOMRA Food in its new facility

Montague started its way as an apple grower in 1948 in Narre Warren North, Australia.

With time it has expanded from production to cold storage facilitation and logistics, and today it is a fresh fruit supplier to big domestic retailers, premium wholesale markets and the global export market, with annual sales above 150 million AUD. 

Montague sells its own-cultivated fruits and products from more than 200 Australian growers and holds the exclusive production and marketing license of Envy™, Jazz™, Sweetango™, Smitten™, Yello™, Ambrosia™, Eve™ apples to the Australian market, as well as Montague Tree Stonefruit and Croc Eggs™ plums to the international markets. 

Montague Production operates 5 facilities with more than 500 hectares of cultivated land, with an annual production of over 30000 bins of apples, 6000 bins of stone fruit and 4 million prepack units. It packs its own fruit, offers packing services for other growers, and aims to boost its total packing volume to 75000 bins within 3 years. 

For this major project Montague decided to invest in a more efficient infrastructure with higher production capacity. After 5 years of selection Montague chose TOMRA Food for its technology. 

Rowan Little, Chief Innovation Officer Montague, explains that they were searching for the best external and internal grading equipment. Other important factors were health and hygiene: the system must guarantee that the fruit reaches the consumer in appropriate quality; labor hours reduction; integration: they needed to easily obtain data on quality, volume and traceability of fruit, from multiple Montague systems. And, finally, the total overall cost of the project was very important.

In September 2019, the company opened one of the largests packaging and export distribution centers in the world. This facility has 18000 sqm of territory and a capacity in excess of 40 million kg. There is a 6-lane MLS sorting system, a 50-lane pre-sorter, five pack lines with scope for expansion, and an automated storage retrieval system with a capacity of 3000 bins. All actions are ensured via robotics in a flow-through design that takes the fruit from the orchard, through the plant, and into storage. 

For this case, TOMRA Food offered the Multi Lane Sorter (MLS) and the Inspectra2, UltraView and Spectrim inspection systems to ensure careful handling and grading accuracy that helps reduce food waste and enlarge pack out. The 3 grading systems inspect the fruit to guarantee the best quality of the end product. The Inspectra2 platform accurately determines internal defects via Near-infrared (NIR) inspection to examine the spectra of light transmitted through each fruit to identify inner characteristics. The Spectrim optical sorting platform utilizes infrared to detect bruises and skin marks that are not visible to the eye. The UltraView inspection module improves detection of complex defects with cameras positioned to look at the stem and calyx end of the fruit to identify frost rings or russet. 

Paul Slupecki, Head of Global Sales TOMRA Fresh Food at TOMRA Food, says that the grading accuracy of TOMRA systems guarantees the highest quality produce, food safety and improved hygiene, and the assurance that the fruit is sorted in the right way. 

According to Slupecki,  the possibility to connect the equipment to Cloud data platforms such as TOMRA Insight, enables better flow of information throughout the supply chain, helping the operation to make smart decisions. 

Rowan Little adds that for growers, this means the ability to manage orchard activity to solve issues that have negatively influenced packout. For retailers, it means more data on fruit characteristics before completing purchase orders. 

Rowan Little is satisfied with choosing TOMRA Food as a partner for this project, and appreciates its ability to deal with any type of challenge, like building a new production facility in times of a pandemic. 

TOMRA Food is a producer of sensor-based sorting machines and integrated post-harvest equipment for the food industry. The company uses one of the world’s most advanced grading, sorting, peeling and analytical technology.

Their main goal is to help their customers to improve returns, gain operational efficiencies, minimise food waste, ensure quality and a safe food supply with sustainable technologies. 

Their solutions are installed at food growers, packers and processors around the world. This allows businesses to maximise productivity and recovery rates, while reducing food waste and developing the overall quality of the produce.