Packing

Superior fruit needs superior packing. It’s for this reason that Graaff Packing was established in 2002. Owning our own facilities gives us more control, ensuring that our fruit arrives at supermarkets in the condition we know our consumers expect: perfect.

Our state-of-the-art facilities are designed for the absolute minimal handling of the fruit. From orchard to shelf, we package the best quality fruit as gently, efficiently and productively as possible. Fruit of the right size and maturity is placed in the correct carton at the most suitable temperature. The cold chain is then maintained through strict control mechanisms, ensuring our fruit has the longest possible shelf-life. Within 48 hours of harvesting, we have our peaches and nectarines packed and cooled down to 0.5°at the highest possible relative air humidity.

Our fruit handling facility boasts 12 000m² of packing and cooling area. We have two Aweta and one Compac automatic weight and color sorter, there is also a rope sizer for very small quantities of sensitive variety. This ensures that fruit is only handled once and that four varieties can be packed at the same time. Our pack house is certified by the British Retailer Consortium, meeting their requirements and ensuring that exact international food safety standards are followed.

For quality assurance, traceability is important for us. That’s why we make sure that each carton of fruit can be traced back to the exact orchard, harvest date, packing date and packer. We also keep samples from each batch to determine the shelf-life of the fruit.