Blueridge Produce cleans and packs millions of pounds of fresh blueberries in an eight- to 12-week season.
To increase production efficiencies and reduce labour while maintaining the highest product quality, the company installed a VERYX digital sorter from Key Technology, which is represented in Australia by Heat and Control.
Tailored especially for Blueridge Produce, this sorter removes colour defects and soft fruit as well as foreign material (FM) such as stems, leaves, metal, glass, rocks, paper, plastic and rubber of any colour.
“We wanted a sorter that could handle more than 10,000 pounds of product per hour with at least 95 per cent accuracy. Our priorities were speed and precision at a cost effective price. We decided the VERYX C140 was right for us,” Blueridge Produce general manager Rhonda Driediger says.
“We replaced 12 sorters with this one VERYX. At the same time, we increased our throughput by 35 per cent and reduced approximately 30 manual labour positions, because we no longer have to rely on hand sorting after digital sorting to achieve our high product quality standards.”
