PRESS RELEASE

For Frutas Mifra - said its General Manager and Owner Miguel Vicente Juan- Cherry Vision 3.0 technology has been a great ally throughout the cherry  harvesting and packing season. 

A complicated year due to the weather conditions of the season and the exceptional situation of the Coronavirus pandemic.

The reference to the unfavorable weather conditions is always present in the thoughts and words of those who faced the cherry sorting season which has recently ended. Just like the reference to Covid-19, which is also inevitable.

When there are issues, it becomes fundamental to have an ally to rely on, who can help solve them effectively.

During the most recent cherry season, Frutas Mifra found this ally in UNITEC Cherry Vision 3.0 technology:

In a campaign characterized by obvious quality defects - continued Miguel Vicente Juan - it would have been very complicated to sort manually, with a considerable increase in both harvesting and cherry processing costs.

We were pleasantly surprised by how the Cherry Vision 3.0 system can detect defects, viewing even the smallest apical damage, as well as most defects that affect the integrity of the cherry.

As a matter of fact, UNITEC Cherry Vision 3.0 is equipped with a large number of very high-resolution cameras, which view 100% of each cherry, detecting even the smallest defect. Including the insidious apical damages, lesions or cracks at the bottom of the fruit.

During seasons characterized by heavy rainfall and hail such as the one just past, without Cherry Vision 3.0 technology it becomes really difficult to separate all the damaged fruits from the “good” ones (and the quality of the latter ends up being compromised too).

It can therefore be said that UNITEC Cherry Vision 3.0 allows for a significant reduction in waste, and “saves” those batches of product that would otherwise require unsustainable costs to be correctly sorted before going on the market.

Reduction of costs and, at the same time, enhancement of the “good” product: thanks to Cherry Vision 3.0 and its reliability in the sorting of cherries according to multiple parameters, cherries can effectively be divided into different classes, each to be destined to a specific target consumer group and a particular and specific distribution channel.

The advantages of UNITEC technology were also underlined by Carlos Llambrich, General Manager of Llamfruit Cherry, packing house from Aragon dedicated to producing, sorting and exporting cherries, which chose to rely on a UNITEC line equipped with Cherry Vision 3.0. Carlos Llambrich summarized some of the advantages achieved thanks to this system:

The chance to keep correct prices and avoid complaints, even in a very complicated year, and to harvest all the fruit. Otherwise we would not have been able to harvest, because we could not have separated the “good” fruits from the “bad” ones.

As a matter of fact, thanks to the reliability and precision in the quality sorting that characterizes Cherry Vision 3.0, Llamfruit Cherry was able to obtain packages of cherries that met the demands of its customers and the expectations of end consumers.

Cherry Vision 3.0 allows to create a relationship of trust between the producer and the Consumer, who never feels betrayed. All of this also leads to zero risk of disputes and complaints due to possible discrepancies between the product agreed upon at the sale and the one actually delivered.

Rio Cinca, another packing house from Aragon that chose the Cherry Vision 3.0 system to sort its cherries, also showed sincere gratitude for this technology that, despite the critical weather conditions, led the packing house to achieve positive feedback from its customers:

This latest evolution of Cherry Vision - said Sales Director Oscar Ortiz - has really given Rio Cinca a further improvement in quality assurance.

Although it has been a critical season due to the heavy rains the result that UNITEC quality sorting technology has helped us achieve was to be rated by our customers as the best Spanish company in terms of quality.

Ability to successfully tackle the season despite hostile weather conditions, ability to sort the product into a variety of classes to be allocated to the most suitable consumer group, reduction of disputes, establishment of longer lasting relationships with customers, improvement of brand reputation, development of a more solid brand with greater credibility.

All this plus an increase in production efficiency, the possibility to handle higher volumes of fruit, and a strong reduction in labor and sorting costs. Jordi Mora Badía, owner of the Frutas David packing house, said:

The improvements brought by the evolution of Cherry Vision in its 3.0 version are more than satisfactory, especially in a delicate year like this.

The improvement of the defect viewer can detect damage to cherries that would otherwise have to be visually sorted by the staff.

All this translates into production savings as well as significant advantage in terms of harvesting.

As a matter of fact, the level of automation that characterizes Cherry Vision 3.0 considerably reduces the amount of personnel required to perform the quality sorting.

This translates into significant savings in terms of labor or greater availability of personnel to be dedicated to other stages of the production process, such as harvesting.

It should also be emphasized that the reduction of personnel involved in the sorting process allows operators to work within safe distances. And the added value of automation does not end there, it becomes a guarantee of safety also for the consumer: UNITEC cherry lines allow for minimum contact of the product with the operators during the different stages of the production process, from the moment the product enters the packing house to the final packing, thus reducing the risk of contamination by personnel.

The 2020 cherry campaign was certainly a complicated one. A campaign that had packing houses faced with a double challenge: that of bad weather and that of Covid-19, which was even more unpredictable.

The Spanish packing houses continued to work, day after day, and UNITEC was by their side with its technology and specialized service, and was happy to be able to help them also in this season, characterized by moments of great concern and difficulty.

With their statements, the Spanish packing houses have expressed their appreciation and gratitude to UNITEC. UNITEC thanks them all the more for their deep trust. This trust pushes UNITEC to continue with more and more conviction and dedication to follow the path of continuous innovation, which every year allows UNITEC to offer unique solutions that can make a difference for the business of its Customers.