The upcoming apple season will be the 13th for the use of SmartFresh™ Technology in Australia.
AgroFresh Commercial Manager Nick Sanders says SmartFresh™ has become synonymous with maintaining the crunch in Aussie apples.
This is because of its ability to inhibit the damaging effects of ethylene, but it is also the tool giving customers time and options for their fruit beyond what traditionally has been available.
“The fundamentals of good storage remain temperature and atmosphere,” Nick said.
“The use of SmartFresh allows greater flexibility, both in harvest and storage operations, and when it comes to marketing.
“The historic route to lowering fruit respiration has been getting the fruit into storage as quickly as possible, coupled with dropping its temperature. SmartFresh relieves much of this pressure.
“Without these pressures customers tell us they can concentrate on things that will increase the quality while improving their operational efficiency”.
AgroFresh Laboratory established
In their search for the best solutions to post harvest problems from this season AgroFresh customers will benefit from a new AgroFresh initiative
AgroFresh Australia has invested just over $330,000 in establishing its own fruit and vegetable laboratory to support customers using SmartFresh, its flagship postharvest technology, and other emerging products including Harvista™.
The 72-square metre laboratory in Officer, south-east of Melbourne, will be operating for the 2017 season. It is being built adjacent to commercial storage facilities and orchard, and will be the mirror image of the two laboratories that AgroFresh operates in the USA.
The laboratory will be run by Research & Development Manager Dr Hannah James who returned to Australia two years ago from AgroFresh in the USA.
Nick Sanders says the laboratory managed by Hannah will be a significant step up in terms of the company’s R&D in Australia, although some work would continue to be outsourced.
“Our aim is to work with customers to ensure their crops, whether its apples, pears or other crops, are as good as it can be at harvest time and the benefits of SmartFresh can be maximised,” Nick said.
“The AgroFresh laboratory will also have the flexibility to include a range of crops as the use of our technologies expands, and in every sense it will be customer-focused.”
Lab testing
The laboratory will undertake pre and post-harvest testing, and this facility will allow AgroFresh to validate a lot of information that has been generated in other regions, specifically for the Australian environment.
It will tap into the company’s global research and development and leverage the wealth of knowledge that has already been generated.
Australia focus
“With Australia’s own climatic conditions, fruit and vegetable varieties and physiology, harvest and storage practices; growers and packers have their own specific challenges which we can help them respond to,” Nick added.
“Also, crops conditions change from year to year, just as the markets can.”
Contact Nick Sanders, Commercial Regional Manager, ANZ
phone 03 9769 8936 mobile 0418 998 315
www.agrofresh.com
See this article in Tree Fruit Dec 2016
