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Blueberry packhouse .

In the last two years , we have experienced fast-expanding imports from new countries where production is rising everywhere including counter-seasonal southern African and South American countries .

Following this market opportunity , Lauetta Farm , an agribusiness in Zimbabwe – about 40km outside Harare – started venturing into blueberry export with great success , even with the difficult climatic conditions . As first-time growers of Costa genetics in Zimbabwe , they are exporting to markets in Europe and the Far East .

The project commenced in 2019 with an investment of 20ha . The project ’ s initial success resulted in a further investment of 20ha in stage two . The key indicators of success would be in the delivery of class 1 premium quality fruit after the 2020 export season .

A critical component of these key indicators is the performance of the cold chain and post-harvest practices to guarantee that quality is maintained up until delivery to the final market . The farm in Zimbabwe would have to maintain this quality to markets in the UK , Europe , the Middle East and the Far East with a transit journey of up to 13 000km , 72 hours by air freight or 35 days by sea freight . Managing director of Lauetta , Alistair

Campbell , says : “ What ’ s critical for us as

Lauetta is how quickly we get the core temperature of the berry down to between 8 and 10 degrees . The faster we do that , the longer the shelf life of the berry . We concentrate very hard on making sure that we get the berry from field to pack shed as quickly as possible .”

STAGE ONE OF THE PROJECT

The need for world- class packshed and cold rooms was apparent . As this was a green field project , the investors had no previous experience or knowledge of what was required . The team of experts at InspiraFarms guided the Lauetta investors to make the right

Precoolers for blueberries .

considerations and completely understand the importance of the cold chain :

• Firstly , that the cold chain infrastructure should be as close to the areas of production as possible . Every 45 minutes out of the cold chain results in the loss of one whole shelf-life day . Due to the distance to the final market , fully appreciating this fact was key .

• Secondly , understanding the importance of step-down temperature maintenance in the post-harvest handling and packing process . Supporting this is the understanding that after cooling , rises in temperature of the product should be avoided .

• Thirdly , the effect of dehydration during the cooling cycles while removing field heat and while reducing the product temperature of the finished goods , packed for export .

It is important that the cold chain that we have is up to scratch by making sure that within 45 minutes to an hour , we can get the berry down to that temperature ,” says Campbell .

During the design process , the InspiraFarms team takes the time to get a detailed understanding of the farm activities , such as :

• Considering harvest volumes per day , how often and in what volumes deliveries are made to the pack house .

• What is the expected volume in year one and the anticipated peak production years

• How many employees are needed inside the packshed at any given time in order to optimise workflow .

The InspiraFarms technical team came up with its design for a 240m 2 facility which included two pre-cooling rooms to remove field heat , a temperature-controlled packing room and a finished product room with forced air cooling to bring the final product temperature down to 0-1 ° C . The facility included special add-on features of humidifiers to reduce dehydration and remote monitoring technology .

The entire facility – including all panels , cooling machines , pipes , cables , doors , lights , sockets , every nut , bolt and rivet – was packed into two 13m containers and shipped to site ready for installation . After the installation process , which took only 21 days , the project team lead from InspiraFarms Cooling ( Heather McSorley ) trained the Lauetta team on the operation of the facility , cold chain protocols for blueberries , and handed over the facility . Campbell says : “ What is becoming increasingly evident is that the better your cold chain , [ the more ] we are able to improve on our gross to net ratio as far as pack out is concerned . The future is bright , we want to expand . The world is loving blueberries at the moment as it is a super food with many good qualities . We have to make sure that we supply the best , and we can only do that with world class infrastructure . I ’ m glad to say that we are very happy and wholly satisfied that we have received just that from InspiraFarms Cooling .”

Lauetta Investments have since reported a highly successful first export season , as of 2020 and after the first phase of installation by InspiraFarms Cooling . Their berries were able to access premium markets in Hong Kong , Europe , UK and the Middle East based on the size of their berries and quality on arrival in the market due to premium cold chain infrastructure and protocols . The shareholders thereafter proceeded with expanding production in phase two , by 20ha , to a total of 40ha by the end 2021 .

PHASE TWO EXPANSION

Thanks to the return on investment in its first facility , Lauetta expanded its production operations by 20ha and resulting cooling capacities only one year later . Its expansion packhouse is rigged with the latest state-of-the-art cooling technology from InspiraFarms Cooling , and includes 120m 2 for receivables and a pre-cooling area , with