An apple producer in the Adelaide Hills is using a high-tech packing machine to export close to 2000 tonnes a year to eight countries across Asia, the UK, and Middle East.
Lenswood Apples grows, packs and markets more than 20,000 tonnes of fruit annually, which accounts for 70 per cent of South Australia’s apple crop and nearly 10 per cent of Australia’s national production.
CEO James Walters said countries such as South Africa and New Zealand were having quality issues with their fruit, so Lenswood stepped in to grow fruit which would meet EU standards.
It also obtained packing shed accreditation while maintaining local customers.
A $5m system
Lenswood Apples looked to French company MAF Roda Agrobotic to source the $5m sorting and packing equipment.
The pre-sizer machine takes 100 photographs of each apple to instantly sort them by size, colour, grade and quality and uses infrared technology to assess sweetness levels and check for internal imperfections.
They are then packed like this:
The system, which also washes and weighs fruit, has enabled the co-operative to process apples at a higher speed and more accurately and precisely than ever before.
Walters said the new line could clean and sort up to 22-tonnes an hour compared with eight or nine tonnes under the previous system.
Sideline act
Lenswood is also now supplying apples to Adelaide Hills cider maker Sidewood, which was looking for a low-sugar point of difference.
Sidewood has just established a canning line at its Nairne winery as part of its philosophy of maintaining control of the process from start to finish.
Previously under glass, the first commercial cans of Sidewood’s apple and pear ciders are expected to roll off the line in coming weeks.
The small-scale Cask Brewing System from Canada can fill about 3000 cans an hour and is scalable to allow for expansion of Sidewood’s current target of 10,000 cases a year.
