Four years after the fruit producer Piñata Farms introduced Australian-designed technology to track the temperature and location of premium berries and mangoes along the supply chain, it has more confidence than ever in the quality and integrity of fruit dispatched.
Piñata Farms is a known adopter of new technologies to enhance its operations and maintain its industry standing for producing premium lines. In 2019, it began working with supply chain specialist Escavox to initially measure the temperature of berries throughout the supply chain via smart trackers so it could have visibility of fruit at any given time.
“This was information previously unavailable to us. We now have smart trackers in every berry consignment leaving our main packing operation at Wamuran, south-east Queensland, and every mango load leaving three farms in the Northern Territory during the mango season,” Piñata Farms managing director Gavin Scurr said.
“We have gained complete visibility over our consignments and can effectively share this information with customers at any time. We could have 30-40 consignments on the road right across Australia at any time and need to know that the temperature has been maintained throughout and that the consignment is on time to meet delivery timeslots.
“Now that everyone along the supply chain (including drivers and distribution and ripening center personnel) knows the temperature is being monitored, they try harder to get it right.”
Temperature information includes whether the produce is too hot, too cold, or exposed to too much light, humidity, or movement.
“Secondly, the system’s GPS function ensures we know where loads are at any time. If a consignment is running late, due to the many variables that can happen on Australian roads, we can tell our customers exactly where the load is and its estimated time of arrival.”
A layer of assurance for specific categories
A quick-chill cool room at Piñata’s Wamuran packing shed used the latest technology to take field heat out of berries faster before packaging in heat-sealed punnets – additional steps adopted in recent years to ensure freshness and prolong shelf life, he said.
The devices, about the size of a mobile phone, are placed by Piñata Farms in a carton or container on loading and are retrieved by Escavox for reuse after the consignment’s arrival.
Excavox founder and chief executive officer Luke Wood said the ability for Piñata Farms to see its supply chain in real-time allowed “simple” solutions such as rejections and handling errors to be fixed quickly.
“We give suppliers the information they need to improve their supply chains. Our data tells them why things might be going wrong or going well so they can take the best action. Over time the data becomes an operating model that gives producers confidence to move towards more strategic investment, such as developing cool-room technology and key partnerships along the supply chain,” Wood said.
For more information:
Gavin Scurr
Piñata Farms
Tel.: +61 (07) 5497 4295