Cold Link Africa November / December 2019 | Page 14

PROJECT
INCORPORATING COLD CHAIN
Continued from page 1
New table grape packhouse takes cold chain seriously
M
odderdrift is the name of the
original farm, which is just over
100ha in size. In 2015 the
business expanded to include two
additional units, Brandwacht and La
Montagne, both located at
Brandwacht, 30km to the southwest in
the Breede River Valley. Initially these
farms had approximately 60ha of
vineyards, but in the near future the
Brandwacht vineyards will also be
expanded to around 120ha which will
expand the total hectares under vine to
over 220ha.
The farms and packhouses
have well-developed operational
infrastructure, including state-of-the-
art packing, sorting and cold-storage
facilities. The development of the
production methods and post-harvest
infrastructure to the best industry
standards added value to the product
and the market is provided with only
the best quality.
A new state-of-the-art table grape
packhouse in Modderdrift was designed
A monorail was installed so that different types and weights of grapes can be handled at the
same time.
PRE-COOLER
by Jan Neethling of JA Verkoeling.
The project started in May 2018 and
When arriving from the vineyard, the
was completed in record time by the grapes (in pallets) are off-loaded into
first week of December 2018, ready to the airlock with the door closed. The
pack in time for the new season. They trucks will then pick up empty crates
previously had a smaller store, but the and return to the vineyard.
need arose for a bigger, more secure
The grapes stand here for about
facility.
an hour and could have an internal
So, a new 55m x 20m packhouse with
temperature as high as 30-35°C. This
mechanical cooling was built. Packing depends when the grapes were picked
generally happens from December until as the morning grapes are obviously
Easter weekend for this farm specifically. much cooler.
The new Moddersdrift Boerdery in Worcester in the Western Cape.
There are 102 packing stations inside the facility.
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The condensers were all built locally by Colcoil.
COLD LINK AFRICA • November/December 2019