Although cherries are more expensive than other stone fruits, their sales are accelerating exponentially. Global demand is increasing, exports are booming, and new growers and packers are entering the market to take advantage of these opportunities.
The popularity of cherries is particularly evident in their largest market, China, with the arrival of the Chinese New Year: to meet such a large seasonal peak in demand, processing plants have to work against the clock, while exporters rush their product to market on express ships and planes. Even so, these little red treasures cannot be produced and packaged at the necessary speed.
And demand for cherries is not expected to stop growing. In developed countries, demand for cherries is constantly increasing due to their health-promoting properties. In developing countries, it is the growing middle class that is driving demand. And in almost all markets, cherries are becoming increasingly popular, not only for home consumption, but also as an ingredient in baking. Experts predict that the global cherry market will continue to grow over the next five years at an annual rate of between 5 and 10% 1Q3Q.
In the race to keep up with demand, Turkey, the world's largest cherry producer, has quadrupled its output in just over a decade. The U.S. remains entrenched as the second-largest producer, but Uzbekistan and Chile are chasing the third and fourth-largest producers, Russia and Iran. Chile, for example, has just doubled its output in just three years. Meanwhile, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, countries in Central Asia with a perfect cherry climate and relatively easy access to the huge Chinese market, are also seeing big production increases.
In all these countries, and in many others, cherry processing companies are under constant pressure to handle increasing volumes of product. And, in addition to increasing their production, they must, at the same time, maintain or improve the quality of the product. In a supermarket, products are eye-catching, and the consumer expects cherries to be of a uniform colour, with smooth, firm and unmarked skin, and with long, green stems, indicative of a fresh fruit.
For packers, this is a huge challenge, as cherries are very vulnerable to handling damage and are very difficult to sort and grade. Careless packing can damage the fruit and cause the stem to fall off. And to reliably detect defects, each fruit must be inspected individually using a 360-degree view – something that has traditionally been impossible.
Understanding the challenges
Thanks to innovative sorting and grading technologies, it is now possible to fully inspect fruit using a 360-degree view. This technology and its associated technologies provide a host of benefits: increasing production; improving the quality of the final product; reducing the problems associated with sorting; increasing labour loyalty; minimising food waste and maximising both sorting and profitability.
TOMRA Food is a leading developer of integrated post-harvest solutions for cherries.
The solutions created by Compac and BBC Technologies, as well as the new ones launched by TOMRA Food following its acquisition, are produced, marketed and supported directly by TOMRA itself. This means that cherry processing companies can now benefit from the technical expertise and global presence of TOMRA, which operates in the USA, Europe, South America, Asia, Africa and Oceania.
Over the past year, TOMRA has taken multiple measures to strengthen its service and after-sales team in Chile. Among these, it has invested heavily in qualified personnel for all areas of its activity, improving the speed of response to customers regardless of their location. And, although its equipment offers high operational reliability, TOMRA now has a greater volume of spare parts at strategic points in the country.
TOMRA Food’s deep understanding of the segment helps it refine its solutions – designed and developed with its customers – and inspires the design and development of new solutions. As with other product categories, TOMRA’s mission with cherries is to lead the resource revolution in a world where “Every Cherry Counts.”
Separation, classification and calibration
TOMRA Food solutions for cherries are now unrivalled due to their efficient execution of all important line tasks: emptying, sorting, grading, packaging and product traceability. With TOMRA, you improve production, ensure gentle handling, precise grading and high process speeds. And, as modular and scalable solutions, they can be customized for companies of any size.
When cherries arrive at the processing plant, TOMRA Food solutions start with loading systems at the start of the line. Then, its revolutionary Cascade Singulator separates the cherry stems using gentle handling and efficient sorting.
While traditional pedicel cutters propel cherries at high speed against the saws, putting the fruit at risk of bruising and cutting, the Cascade Singulator slows the cherries by using a water transport system. By improving the location of the split at the exact point where cherries meet, the center of the cluster is aligned to achieve a clean and even split without risk of damaging the fruit. This also reduces maintenance costs and man-hours that other systems typically require to clean and adjust the machine.
To optimise lane filling capacity, TOMRA’s unique Dynamic Lane Balancer technology enables up to 10-15 % more lane capacity (per fruit volume) compared to other systems – and sometimes even more. At one plant in Chile, for example, TOMRA cherry lines are running at an average capacity of 670 kg/h per lane, compared to the industry standard of 400 kg/h per lane.
TOMRA offers its Small Fruit Sorter (SFS) with InVision2 and TotalView Plus, being able to segregate what the client needs with respect to the target market and category, due to the wide variety of criteria.
Cherries are graded into different sizes in compliance with standard market norms. They are also graded by color and condition defects, including firmness, as well as other cosmetic and non-homogeneous color defects.
For this season, the user/operator interface has been modified to make it user-friendly when incorporating changes and to allow the operator's decisions to be anticipated. Since we segregate what the client requires, we achieve greater profitability and take advantage of every cherry.
Compared to other sorters, the TotalView cameras are positioned at lower inspection angles and closer to the fruit. The superior quality images improve the detection of defects in the apical zone, mould and crescent in the pedicellar zone, and cracking at the suture. In addition, the SFS grader treats cherries more gently than other technologies available on the market, employing a series of patented systems that transport cherries in water for inspection. If you are looking for less pitting and bruising on your fruit, TOMRA is the solution.
Using TOMRA sorters allows for improved sizing accuracy as it can see differences of just 0.1 mm in cherry size. With its robust software, processors can sort their product according to market demand. This not only satisfies the consumer, but also maximises profits for cherry processors as the price difference between different cherry sizes can be between 12 and 25 % in some markets. Thus, the accurate sizing of TOMRA equipment maximises the price of your products.
The process is also made more efficient by correctly detecting defects. TOMRA allows products of different qualities to be defined based on consumer tolerance and demand. TOMRA ensures an extremely low ratio of good product to bad product, which improves the efficiency and overall profitability of the process. In addition, by mixing high-quality product with a certain amount of product with an authorised defect, cherry waste is minimised and the individual value of each fruit is maximised (for example, the operator can decide the tolerance for entry into each category of double fruit, fruit without pedicel, etc.). Defect classification allows defects to be reported individually so that producers can improve their production management.
Filling and packaging solutions for different markets
TOMRA filling and packing machines handle cherries with care. These automated solutions can simultaneously pack different quality fruit for different markets. The filling system, which could be traditional, semi-automatic, high-productivity automatic and CURO equipment, ensures homogeneous and fast filling, with the precise weight and flexibility to easily change between a wide variety of packaging options (clamshells, punnets, and 1, 2, 2.5, 5 and 10 kg boxes).
All components in the process line are interconnected and communicate with each other to create a fully integrated solution.
All of this, as with other automated line solutions, contributes to reducing food waste and increasing the profits of the processing company. When a company decides to invest in such solutions, it quickly becomes clear that it has made the right decision. And when the provider of these solutions is TOMRA, which combines its global R&D leadership with its local presence and its customer-centric way of working, processing plants can be assured of receiving the right operational training and technical support to ensure that the machines perform at their best with the least possible downtime.
