Dutch manufacturer presents the innovative containerised ripening room

On April 19, Interko, the manufacturer, designer, and installer of advanced fresh fruit ripening rooms presented its pioneering Containerised Ripening Room, which has been developed during five years in partnership with Fyffes, multi-national tropical fruit importer-marketer.

During that period, Interko has built, installed and tested 120 ripening containers for Fyffes. 

Containerised Ripening Room is a turnkey system that offers a mobile, multi-functional, space-saving, and high quality solution to ripen fresh fruit. 

It works by constructing a ripening room inside of a normal insulated refrigeration container, either from scratch or retrospectively, thereby converting the container itself into a ripening room. This is a perfect solution to ripen bananas, mangoes, avocados, apricots, among other fruits.

Interko’s Containerised Ripening Room is designed to suit operators who need the flexibility of moving their room to another location by ship or track; for those who have inappropriate infrastructure or space to house a standard-sized ripening room; for those who cannot invest in a permanent facility; for for those who need to react quickly to a rise in demand on the spot market. Interko offers an option to purchase or to lease the system.

Chris Maat, Managing Partner/Director at Interko, stressed that Interko had several attempts to design a ripening container since 1999. Now, in cooperation with Fyffes, Interko has tested and refined the system to the point where they have 120 container rooms operating well. 

“The Interko Containerised Ripening Room is another example of our continued drive for innovation”, commented Chris Maat.

Interko’s Containerised Ripening Room is 2.6 metres wide by approximately 12 metres long. It can hold 20 full-sized pallets each stacked with up to 9 boxes of fruit. The system has been developed considering energy efficiency, and it is quick to deploy. 

Taking to account the small dimensions of a container, it includes its own fan design. It also can be provided with a gas-tight, high-speed roll door for ease of access. There is also a small control room.

Maat explains that the advantage of having a smaller space is the reduced volume of air that is in the room, which enables more direct control over the ripening process, in comparison with a standard ripening room. The operator can rely on the control system and sensors, not needing to walk down the middle aisle to monitor fruit development.

With Interko’s Containerised Ripening Room it is possible to ripen fruit to perfection without manual controls or inspections. 

About Interko

With a background of more than 50 years in the industry, Interko is one of the foremost experts in the world in fresh fruit ripening technology.

Based in the Netherlands, Interko develops advanced and energy-efficient systems that are built to last. Since its foundation, the company has installed over 7.000 ripening rooms fruits – the earliest of which are still performing well today. The company installs around 200 ripening rooms every year. 

Its range of ripening rooms – Ultimo, Axesso and Optimo – are developed to suit operators of any size in any corner of the world.

Interko’s rooms can be used for ripening bananas, avocados, mangoes, kiwifruit, papayas, pears, apricots, peaches, and tomatoes, and can also perform citrus de-greening for lemons and oranges.

To learn more about the company, visit their website.