Peaches
As the calendar is set to turn to August, the anticipation of peach season in the sunny Okanagan Valley is not far behind. To help facilitate the demand of this juicy fan-favourite summer fruit, BC Tree Fruits is excited to unveil a brand new, state-of-the-art peach and apple packing production line in their Oliver packing facility. The installation of this multi-million dollar packing line was just completed and saw the first bins of fruit go across this past weekend. BC Tree Fruits continues to be a leader in the industry and the Valley and with the addition of this new line continues the trend of employment opportunities within the Cooperative, specifically in the south Okanagan region.
The launch of this new packing line brings the Okanagan Valley, and more specifically the grower members of BC Tree Fruits Cooperative, the advantage of having some of the most advanced efficient grading technology in Canada. The new packing line will deliver accurate and consistent fruit quality to consumers across Western Canada and will support the expectation in the market of high quality, locally grown fruit from the growers of BC Tree Fruits Cooperative.
“We are excited to bring this technology to our grower members,” says Director of Operations Peter Hoffman. “This new packing line utilizes an optical sorter that has advanced machine-learning capabilities that revolutionizes the sorting process. The results will allow us to colour map, grade and defect sort fruit with increased accuracy, all with the focus of delivering consistent, high quality fruit to our consumers.”
“With the launch of this new packing line, we maintain our commitment to reinvest in our industry and our growers with state-of-the-art technology,” says Stan Swales, Chief Executive Officer. “With this line comes the ability for us to continue to meet our consumer’s expectations of premium fruit whenever they see the BC Tree Fruits leaf.”
The Oliver facility will handle the packing of all summer fruits for BC Tree Fruits Cooperative outside of cherries, which are also packed in the Kelowna facility. The new packing line will also handle apples starting in the fall.
About BC Tree Fruits Cooperative:
BC Tree Fruits Cooperative is comprised of over 430 local grower families who grow a variety of tree fruit commodities including apples, cherries, pears, peaches, nectarines, apricots, prunes, plums and grapes. BC Tree Fruits head office is located in Kelowna, BC.
For more information: bctreefruits.com | facebook.com/bctree | twitter.com/bctreefruits
