Dutch ripening room manufacturer Interko announced its expanding its at-source ripening offer. This comes as the firm notes a “growing demand worldwide.” Interko’s range of ripening rooms, Ultimo, Optimo and Axesso, are designed to accommodate multiple size operators in any location worldwide.

The rooms can be used at the source or in the end market for ripening numerous fruits, including bananas, avocados, mangoes, papayas, pears, apricots, peaches, kiwifruit and tomatoes.

Interko rooms can also perform citrus degreening for lemons and oranges.

Related articles: Walmart unveils subscription service

“At-source ripening is really taking off while we remain extremely busy with our traditional end-market ripening business. Interko is receiving a lot of demand for our technology to ripen at the source fruit like avocados for dips/purées; and bananas for baby food, as well as mangoes that will be diced for the smoothie, fresh-cut and frozen fruit markets,” says Interko Managing Director and partner, Chris Maat.

Interko has accepted substantial orders to install large ripening rooms in Latin America, and sees potential for growth in Spain and North Africa, the firm says in a release.

Interko's Ultimo room installation in Mexico for avocados.

The company is partnering with growers and processors of avocados, mangoes and bananas who wish to ripen fruit in the country of origin for sale to the puréed, smoothie, fresh-cut and frozen fruit markets both domestically and abroad.

Interko offers a range of large to small ripening rooms as well as state-of-the-art technologies that can be integrated into new builds or retrofitted within existing rooms.

All solutions are designed to be energy efficient, reduce operating costs, and perfectly ripen fruit for optimal quality, finish and shelf-life.

“As well as satisfying huge market demand, ripening fruit at the source to sell to the processing industry is also a great way for growers to find avenues for their surplus or lower-grade fruit, which has a positive effect on reducing food waste,” Maat adds.