South Africa’s Fruitways leverages the value of colour and texture in pome fruit through partnership with AgroFresh

SmartFresh™ Quality system and Harvista™ 1.3 SC help extend harvest and storage times and improve the quality of the apple harvest

PHILADELPHIA – AgroFresh Solutions, Inc., a global leader in post-harvest fresh produce solutions, has been working with Fruitways, a leader in the South African apple industry, for over 20 years. By integrating the AgroFresh SmartFresh™ quality system into their operations over many years, Fruitways has been able to revolutionize their business by allowing longer fruit storage and export of high quality fruit over a much longer season, as well as opening up markets that were previously inaccessible due to quality constraints. With the introduction of Harvista™ 1.3 SC as a near-harvest product, Fruitways now has another valuable tool to manage product quality before and during harvest.

“AgroFresh is an important supplier for us,” said Jaco Moelich, General Manager – Technical Services at Fruitways. “Both Harvista and SmartFresh provide us with valuable tools to determine when to harvest and when to pack fruit for our customers. SmartFresh has really changed the way we think about the post-harvest process and our decision-making regarding storage and marketing of our fruit.”

The SmartFresh™ quality system and Harvista™ 1.3 SC technology have transformed Fruitways’ presence in the pome fruit industry.

“The climate is not always ideal for good color development, so sometimes the tree needs to be left a little longer for the cold fronts to come in the fall, and Harvista gives us the ability to delay our harvest. If you can delay your harvest a little bit, you get a little bigger size, but also very good color development,” Moelich added. “After harvest, texture is the most important thing, and SmartFresh plays a very big role in maintaining a crisp texture for the consumer during storage, long after the apple harvest.”

“It gives us pride and satisfaction to know that Fruitways and the pome fruit industry benefit from the research and investment that AgroFresh has made and continues to make in the area of ​​quality management,” said Peter Wood, Country Manager South Africa for AgroFresh. “Collaborations such as the one with Fruitways are the cornerstone of the success that AgroFresh has had in the industry for decades. We answer real quality and freshness issues that our customers face throughout the fresh produce supply chain.”

AgroFresh has commercialized the SmartFresh™ Quality System products based on 1-MCP starting in 2003 with the application for apples. Over the last 20 years, it has been expanded for use in multiple crops and new applications in the field, storage and transport. Their focus on quality and freshness has led to the evolution of their solution portfolio beyond ethylene management to include fungicides, coatings and digital platforms, including FreshCloud™ for quality testing and wireless in-room monitoring with the Strella sensor.

“The SmartFresh quality system has really changed the way we think about our post-harvest process and our decision making regarding storage and marketing of our fruit. In the future, I can’t really imagine how we would manage a process without this collaboration with AgroFresh,” said Moelich.

For more details on how AgroFresh solutions help customers produce abundant, sustainable, high-quality fresh produce for all, visit AgroFresh.com or email [email protected].

About AgroFresh
AgroFresh is a global leader in post-harvest quality and freshness solutions. The goal is to improve the quality of fresh produce and extend its shelf life, while reducing food loss and waste. With over 40 years of innovation, AgroFresh addresses the challenges of the fresh produce supply chain from all angles, offering a full range of integrated storage, packing line and digital solutions. AgroFresh has everything needed to enable growers, packers and retailers to successfully deliver fresh, high-quality and sustainable produce from harvest to home in their stores. For more information about AgroFresh, visit www.agrofresh.com.