By TOMRA

TOMRA Fresh Food Announces Global Category Director of Cherries

TOMRA is pleased to announce the addition of its newest team member, Benedetta Ricci Iamino, who will have the position of Global Category Director of Cherries based out of their Melbourne, Australia office.

Benedetta joins TOMRA Fresh Food with 8 years’ experience in the fruit industry. Driven by accountability, curiosity and determination, she has held several management positions including Project Sales Manager for EMEA region and APAC branch director; where she was responsible for developing and driving sales strategies, increasing regional market shares, and setting up and leading the local team.

Firmly believing that connection, empathy, growth and courage are the most important values for a company to thrive, she joins the TOMRA team with the expertise, intuition and grit to further enhance the company's fresh presence in the global cherry market.

“I am honored and thrilled to join Tomra Fresh Food as a Global Category Director for cherries during such exciting times of integrating together the experience, know-how, people, and organizational values of Compac and BBC Technologies, both well-established manufacturing leaders in the fresh fruit industry," Benedetta said.

"I am looking forward to further supporting TOMRA Fresh Food in becoming the reference for world-class integrated solutions for cherries. By leading the Global Cherry Sales Team with our new extensive technology portfolio, stronger global team of cherry experts and localized presence, we enhance our go-to-market approach a build on stronger customer relationships to successfully deliver our customers with the most innovative tailor-made solutions and excellent back-up support. This enables them to achieve the Best Results of production, fruit quality and consistency over time and increase their profitability.”

Cascade Singulator

Along with appointing the Global Category Director for Cherries, TOMRA Fresh Food has launched their latest product, the Cascade Singulator, after a significant investment into better understanding cherry singulation in order to improve handling and reduce pitting damage caused by existing methods.

Cut quality is also improved when separating cherry clusters on the new machine as the unique design of the system aligns the center of the cluster in order to give a nice even cut.

TOMRA conducted extensive research consulting with a range of cherry industry experts globally, both within its customer base and the wider cherry industry in countries such as Turkey, Germany, Spain, the U.S., Canada, Chile, New Zealand, Australia and China.

The gentle handling of a high-value product like cherries has been an issue within the industry that has not been tackled by traditional cluster cutting methods.

The Cascade Singulator provides a gentle conveyance method with superior cluster separation, removing the need for rotating blades.

Pitting damage has also always been an issue with the traditional cluster cutting methods. This is especially true for more delicate varieties such as Rainier cherries which have lighter colored skin.

For the customer, quality of separation is just as important as gentle handling and the Cascade Singulator uses a new method that improves cut location and gets the cut closer to the knuckle. Traditional cluster cutters are quite noisy, where the cascade singular is significantly quieter.

Ken Polehn, owner of Polehn Farms Inc. said the machine is quieter, gentler and safer to work on and stem retention improvements over last year's machine paid for the investment in one season.

"This is a game-changer and will revolutionize the cherry industry," he said.

For more information please contact:

Maura Furniss
Communications and Design Manager TOMRA Fresh Food

+64 22 674 1285

Maura.furniss@tomra.com