PROJECT
INCORPORATING COLD CHAIN
Some foreign buyers specify Euro Pool returnable trays (green) while others
accept cardboard cartons.
temperature and have to be cooled further
at the trans-shipment cold store,” comments
Alwyn Dippenaar of Leerkrans Boerdery.
In discussions with Alwyn, we canvassed
his comments about other exporting
countries. “During a tour of Chile, we
observed their cooling methods. I am not
sure that their methods are any better
than ours. We also have reversed cooling
in South Africa, but it requires additional
holding space to maximise the benefit
of increased throughput. The quality
of fruit from Chile on arrival in Europe,
In modern society, the eating of raisins is
seen as contributing towards a healthy
lifestyle and has increased the demand,
both locally and abroad. The export of
raisins is becoming lucrative and production
is on the increase in the Orange River area.
Besides being spoken about by many of
the role players, this trend is evident from
the many new concrete slabs on which
the raisons are sun dried. Pack houses are
also considering the possibility of using the
cooling tunnels at the end of the packing
season to ‘force dry’ the raisins.
Drivers are warned to travel carefully on the gravel roads to the farms.
Augpad 1 in Augrabies has closed off the
drive through receiving bay to add more
holding capacity. The newer tunnels have
reverse airflow cooling that reduces cooling
time by two hours. After the shorter cooling
time, the pallets are placed in the holding
area ahead of the arrival of the refrigerated
transport. The shorter cooling time and
holding area have increased the pallet
throughput by 15%.
Jacque de Wet is upbeat about
equipping some of the larger cooling
chambers for the de-greening rooms for
citrus. He goes on to explain: “Many of the
citrus orchards in the area are coming into
full production and our de-greening rooms
will keep Augpad operational after the
table grape season, which ends in January.
There are plans to increase the production
volumes of fruit concentrate in the adjacent
citrus plant on the same site.”
WORKPLACE HEALTH AND
SAFETY COMPLIANCE
Groot Gariep Cold Store remains the largest
pallet capacity facility and one of only
two ammonia refrigeration plants in the
Orange River table grape area. Mark Farrell,
the