Welcome to all our new customers for May 2024

We’re thrilled to extend a warm welcome to all of the new customers who have joined Hectre in the past month! Welcome and thank you for choosing Hectre as your tech partner.

FRUITS QUERALT

Spain

Fruits Queralt, a family business from Lleida, Spain, has been cultivating and distributing high-quality fruits for over 40 years. As the company has grown from local production to a significant exporter, they’ve embraced technology to improve their processes and product quality.

One challenge for Fruits Queralt was the lack of precise data on fruit size and color, which are critical for maximizing sales and optimizing storage. Traditional grading methods were slow and often inaccurate, affecting overall efficiency.

Hectre’s Fruit Sizing & Color Grade solutions provide a high accuracy rate of 98.7%, comparing favorably against industrial grading machines. This non-invasive technology delivers quick, reliable data without disrupting existing workflows.

SadPol

Poland

Since its inception in 1992, SADPOL has established itself as one of the leaders in Poland’s fruit and vegetable market, exporting quality produce across Europe, Asia, and Africa. Located in the heart of Poland’s prime fruit-growing region, SADPOL prides itself on offering a wide range of products, from apples to carrots, all cultivated or sourced to meet the highest standards, as evidenced by their GLOBALGAP certification.

SADPOL seeks to enhance its operational visibility across all production centers to optimize profit margins and improve the management of sorting processes. A specific need exists for a cost-effective sorting solution for blueberries, aimed at reducing operational expenses without compromising on sorting accuracy.

With Hectre Fruit Sizing, SADPOL can now achieve a 250x increase in sample size for fruit evaluation, gaining immediate insights into size and color distribution. This technology is user-friendly, adaptable to various devices, and functional both online and offline, making it a versatile tool for use in fields, coolstores, or packhouses. By enhancing the accuracy of fruit sorting and reducing associated costs, SADPOL is positioned to further strengthen its market presence and operational efficiency, reaffirming its commitment to delivering the best in quality and service.

N.J. Fox & Sons Inc.

Shelby, MI, US

N.J. Fox & Sons Inc., rooted in Shelby, Michigan, is a comprehensive family-run agricultural business with extensive operations spanning orchards, packing lines, storage facilities, and a trucking business. The company is deeply integrated into the local agricultural landscape, specializing in tart cherries—a regional staple harvested in July—as well as pears, primarily cultivated for delivery to Gerber for baby food production. The business also engages in tart cherry pitting and packing, and operates a key local warehouse serving as a receiving station for Gerber Products, Coloma Frozen Foods, and Pro-Fac Cooperative.

A challenge facing N.J. Fox & Sons Inc. is the need to capture and manage costs on a detailed level—by block, variety, and acre. This granularity is crucial for optimizing operational efficiency and profitability.

The Hectre Orchard Management app, equipped with Harvest and Timesheets modules, offers a robust solution tailored to meet these challenges. This technology suite provides advanced tools designed to streamline the tracking and management of labor and harvest data, allowing for precise cost analysis and enhanced operational oversight.

Grupa Producentów IDEALSAD Sp. z o.o.

Poland

Established in February 2005, IDEALSAD represents a collective of fruit growers from central Poland. The cooperative primarily produces apples alongside other fruits like plums, cherries, pears, blackcurrants, and gooseberries. Operating under the principles of Integrated Fruit Production, IDEALSAD ensures environmentally friendly practices and delivers high-quality fruits that are free from harmful chemicals.

Despite their sophisticated approach, IDEALSAD faces some challenges due to their current water unloading system, which lacks precalibration and sends fruits directly to the packing line, leading to significant production downtime. This inefficient process necessitates frequent repacking and causes elevated sorting costs.

Hectre’s Fruit Sizing provides a robust solution to these challenges. By implementing Hectre’s solution, IDEALSAD can significantly reduce the need to rehandle fruits, with potential reductions in sorting costs up to 60%. The technology allows for faster and more accurate fruit assessments, decreasing the time required to sort 20 tons of fruit, which previously took 11 hours, thus optimizing both cost and operational efficiency.

Price Apples

Yakima, WA, US

Since its founding in 1935, Price Apples has evolved from a small export business to a leading grower-packer-shipper of apples, pears, and cherries in Washington State. Operating from a strategically located packing facility in Yakima, Price Apples ensures quick access to its diverse orchards across the state. With a commitment to food safety, quality, and innovation, Price Apples has been continuously adapting to market demands and consumer preferences.

Recently, Price Apples opened a new packing facility with the goal of enhancing production planning and storage management. The company aims to optimize the use of this facility to improve overall operational efficiency, grower returns, and meet high standards.

Hectre’s Fruit Sizing solution is perfectly suited to assist Price Apples in achieving these goals. This technology offers precise and rapid assessments of fruit size and color, facilitating better sorting and packaging processes. With an accuracy of up to 98.7%, the system can help streamline operations and inventory management.

Ottawa Orchards

Coopersville, MI, US

Ottawa Orchards, originally Ken Schwallier Orchards, Inc., has a storied history that dates back to the late 1800s in West Michigan. With a legacy of agricultural innovation shaped by generations, the orchard has evolved to focus on apple cultivation, leveraging the region’s ideal climate near Lake Michigan. Today, under the guidance of the fifth generation, the orchard embraces modern technologies to maintain high standards in apple quality and safety. This commitment ensures that Ottawa Orchards continues to deliver superior fruit to customers.

Ottawa Orchards is looking to harness technology to gain early fruit sizing data immediately after the fruit is picked. This capability is crucial for making informed decisions about fruit management and distribution early in the supply chain.

Hectre offers the perfect tool for Ottawa Orchards’ needs. This technology enables immediate fruit size measurement at the point of picking, accessible via any smartphone or tablet. It works seamlessly both online and offline, ensuring flexibility in various field conditions.

OVS

Italy

OVS Italy, established in 1960, holds the distinction of being the first fruit auction business in South Tyrol. The company collaborates with over 300 fruit growers each autumn to offer a diverse array of fruit varieties, all produced under integrated farming principles and Global Gap certification, ensuring sustainability and consumer health. OVS is synonymous with the SELECT quality brand, representing superior, controlled quality in its offerings.

A significant operational challenge for OVS is the manual collection and evaluation of fruit samples for size and color to determine payments to suppliers. This manual process is time-consuming, labor-intensive, and can lead to inconsistencies in quality assessment and supplier payments.

Hectre’s Top Down offers a transformative solution for OVS, automating the size and color directly upon fruit reception. This advanced system captures comprehensive data for all fruit, enabling precise and uniform assessments without the need for manual sampling

VISAFRUITS

Spain

VISAFRUITS, a distinguished family business with three generations of experience, has dedicated 80 years to mastering the art of fruit handling, refrigeration, and marketing in Lleida. This long-standing commitment to excellence is driven by a spirit of constant innovation and adherence to the high standards set from the very beginning. With a legacy built on progress and a focus on continual improvement, VISAFRUITS represents a perfect blend of tradition and modernity in the agricultural sector.

A challenge facing VISAFRUITS was finding a fruit sizing solution that could integrate seamlessly into their packhouse operations. The need was for a system that could provide accurate and traceable data throughout their operation process, from pre-harvest to storage and sales, ensuring quality and efficiency.

Hectre’s Top Down offers an ideal solution for VISAFRUITS. This technology is specifically designed to fit perfectly within the packing processes, allowing for accurate sizing of fruits directly at receiving. The system’s capability to trace data back to the source is invaluable, enhancing operational transparency and accountability across all stages of production.

Elita grupa producentów owoców

Poland

Fruit Producers Group Elita Sp. z o. o., a distinguished consortium of fruit producers from Głowno, Dmosin, and Rogów. With its headquarters strategically located in Lubiankowo, the group leverages the region’s agricultural strengths to produce a variety of high-quality fruits including apples, plums, cherries, pears, peaches, and currants. Specializing in large-scale production, Elita ensures consistent, year-round delivery of fresh fruits, supported by extensive warehouse and state-of-the-art cold storage facilities. Adhering to rigorous standards, all products are certified under Integrated Production, guaranteeing safety and quality.

A key operational challenge for Elita is the need for early fruit sizing data, which is crucial for optimizing inventory management. Effective inventory control is essential for planning the storage and distribution of fresh produce and meeting market demand efficiently.

Hectre’s fruit sizing provides a robust solution to this challenge. This system allows for precise sizing of fruit immediately after harvest, offering real-time data that can be utilized to enhance decision-making processes across storage and supply chain operations.

Interlazaro

Spain

Interlazaro, a family-run business with nearly a century of experience in the fruit sector, is deeply rooted in the Autonomous Community of Aragon, Spain. The company excels in the production and marketing of fresh fruit cultivated on its own farms. Known for its commitment to innovation and a passion for agricultural traditions, Interlazaro has successfully expanded its reach into national and international markets, leveraging its rich history and forward-thinking approach to remain competitive and adaptive.

Interlazaro faces the challenge of optimizing inventory management and enhancing promotional planning through early access to accurate fruit sizing data. This capability is crucial for improving operational efficiency, reducing waste, and securing favorable market opportunities, particularly in negotiations with supermarkets.

To address these needs, the introduction of Hectre Fruit Sizing offers a significant advantage. This system provides immediate and precise measurements of fruit size at various stages of the supply chain, from post-harvest handling to storage. The data obtained enables more informed decision-making, allowing Interlazaro to effectively manage inventory levels and plan promotions based on the actual size profile of the fruit in storage.