LUGO, ITALY - The latest developments from the Unitec Group, the international organization specializing in designing and producing technologies for the processing, internal and external quality classification, sorting and packing of more than 35 types of fresh fruit and vegetables, will be at the center of PMA Fresh Summit, running in New Orleans from 19 to 21 October. A high degree of specialization and constant drive towards innovation are in the DNA of this Group, which works daily and coherently to meet the precise, specific needs of fruit and vegetable supply chain operators.

Unitec technologies are characterised by the development of new systems for the non-destructive classification of internal and external fruit quality and by new designs for creating selection, sorting and packing lines for many types of fruit and vegetables. For the PMA expo event, the Group will be training the spotlights on the Cherry Vision 2 electronic cherry selecting technology and a specially selected offering of the most high-performance vision systems dedicated to all those fruits of particular interest to the US market, such as blueberries, cherries, apples, pears, peaches, plums, apricots and kiwis, as well as technologies for sorting limes and other citrus fruits.

This important occasion will be the ideal stage for consolidating, also in the US market, the revolutionary scope of the innovations from the Group that, for more than 90 years, with its technologically advanced solutions has been at the side of packing houses the world over to enhance their business. With this precise goal of establishing a line of action, the Unitec Group designs and produces highly customised and integrated technologies, capable of  providing an effective response to the specific needs of an entire supply chain, from the field for cultivation to the supermarket shelf.

“A series of highly strategic achievements results from the introduction of Unitec technologies to processing centres: continuous improvement of customers’ business, excellent selection and classification of fruit quality, reduced waste and the guarantee of being able to offer and continue to offer perfect supply to the end consumer,” begins Luca Montanari, Vice President of the Unitec Group, commenting on attendance at the prestigious New Orleans expo.

By supplying fruit possessing well-defined quality characteristics, the Unitec Group allows packing houses to maintain relations characterised by long-term trust with their customers, with a resulting increase in revenue. In the United States, there’s a great focus on stone fruit, blueberries and kiwis, and the technologies that will be exhibited at the expo are the concrete demonstration of an approach characterised by concrete sharing of goals with customers. Packing houses that choose the Unitec Group want to develop at an industrial level, gain new positions, and they know that with the Group they’ll find a door opening out onto the designs of the future, new targets and markets to reach.

“We’ve been very  pleased  as a  Group  with  the feedback  from US customers who’ve decided to  introduce our innovations to their fruit processing. In California, the cherry producer M&R had a good 2017 season, in part thanks to our technologies, and, wishing to stay in this area, OC Packing and Podesta have demonstrated their confidence in us for 2018 as well. After the success of Sun Pacific, Quinco too has decided to invest in Unitec Group technologies. The line dedicated to selecting the weight and external quality of kiwis, will be soon installed in the company in California. In the state of Washington too, where our second American branch is located, great attention is being paid to our technologies. In effect, ACMI has chosen us for its dedicated blueberry line, one of our innovations with the greatest appreciation at international level. Beyond their geographical position, these are great results as far as we’re concerned, because a customer who chooses the technological innovation of our Group is making a decisive step towards greater competitiveness and reliability, characteristics that have now become essential requirements in an increasingly tough market. By confirming their partnership in subsequent years as well, these operators convey not only  their satisfaction but also their full participation in a vision of the supply chain directed towards reaching qualitative excellence,” concludes Montanari.

Technologies in the spotlight at PMA Fresh Summit 2017: 

At PMA Fresh Summit 2017, the Unitec Group will above all bring its know-how, acquired over a more than 90-year history, and the tireless drive towards innovation of a Research & Development department that works daily to increase the performance of fresh fruit and vegetable processing constantly. Specifically, the spotlights will be trained on the quality selection and classification technologies and systems dedicated to processing fruits of particular interest to the US market: 

• Unical_200  Cherry  and  Cherry  Vision  for  cherries.  Technology  dedicated  to  processing  small,  delicate  fruits, including cherries, cherry tomatoes and olives, Unical 200 Cherry makes use of a smart roller conveyor system and delicate pneumatic discharge to the packing belt or directly into water channels. With the innovative Cherry Vision 2 vision system, 100% developed, designed and produced by Unitec, there’s superior electronic classification of the various cherry quality parameters. This technology permits internal and external fruit quality analysis, detecting its size, color, internal defects, external defects, softness, absence or presence of stalk and degrees Brix. Specifically, Cherry Vision 2 is the only technology capable of detecting the softness of the fruit and selecting the cherries by color, so as to supply products appropriate to the varying requirements of the reference markets. Moreover, processing great quantities of product in less time significantly reduces running costs, confidently ensuring consistent quality over time.
• Blueberry Vision for blueberries. The pioneering technology in the field of blueberry selection and classification. The first,  one-of-a-kind  system  that  ensures  the  possibility  of  inspecting  100%  of  the  blueberry’s  surface,  without damaging it, considerably enhancing reliability in selecting and classifying the product before it enters the market.
• UT Instruments, a company created by merging Unitec and TR Turoni, operating in the fruit and vegetable quality control sector for more than 30 years, will exhibit its electronic precision instruments to measure the quality of fruit and vegetable products. Portable, smart, quick and safe, with Bluetooth technology and dedicated software, UT Instruments products complete the offering of the Unitec Group perfectly. These electronic instruments allow the measurement of fruit quality parameters: small/large, storable/not storable, sour/sweet, soft/hard, ripe/unripe, to enable the entire supply chain to satisfy the specific demands of the consumer.

Unitec