Due to the significant growth in volume of strawberries and other berries moving across the border from Mexico into the United States at McAllen, TX, TransFresh Corp., which provides to the berry industry a modified-atmosphere pallet packaging system called Tectrol, has put “significant capital infrastructure into the key coolers down there,” according to Rich MacLeod, vice president of the TransFresh Pallet Division North America.

The process started about three years ago, when TransFresh began “moving major conveyor pieces” to McAllen, MacLeod said. A key step in the Tectrol process is to inject the Tectrol modified atmosphere into the sealed pallet bag.This season alone, TransFresh has invested about $250,000 in equipment  for coolers in McAllen, primarily at Loop Cold Storage, including new high-performance components designed to meet the special fasts turn-around requirements of those coolers.

“That represents a fairly major investment for TransFresh to support the trade down there,” he said.

The newly installed equipment “enhances the overall speed and efficiency of the sealing process” for pallets of strawberries and other berries crossing from Mexico, according to a written statement provided to The Produce News Feb. 3 by TransFresh. “The installation is up and running and ready for peak season.”

“Maximizing shelf life and efficient distribution of perishables is at the core of Loop’s supply chain services in McAllen,” said John McGuire, vice president of business development for Loop Cold Storage.

The volume of fresh berries crossing the Texas border was relatively small just a few years ago.

“Today, berry imports are a sizable player in the North American market during the winter season,” McGuire said. “Loop has made significant investments in infrastructure and training to provide the required services for berry importers, and we appreciate the similar commitment to serving the berry industry that’s been made by TransFresh.”

In an interview with The Produce News, MacLeod explained the special needs of the berry operations in McAllen and the reason that innovative higher-performance equipment was needed.

Strawberries that are handled at the facilities in McAllen are grown, harvested, packed and palletized in central Mexico, then cooled and transported to McAllen by refrigerated trucks.

“When they get to the cooler in McAllen,” he said, “these coolers are charged with pulling those strawberries off the trucks that come from Mexico,” consolidating them and “reloading them on trucks that are going to go to retailers in the United States.”

The difference is that in California, for example, the trucks bring pallets of strawberries from the field “hour by hour” throughout the day, so there is “a little bit more time” to work with them, MacLeod said. But in McAllen, many truckloads of strawberries tend to arrive at the coolers “within a very tight time schedule, say between 3:00 and 6:00 in the afternoon. Those coolers have to consolidate all those pallets of strawberries and raspberries and such and get them out on an outbound truck that same evening, so they are under considerable pressure to move those berries through those facilities very, very quickly.”

That means “those who are providing services to those coolers,” specifically Tectrol, “have to have systems that are robust and that work as efficiently as possible,” he said, and the installations have to be sufficient to handle the large volume of fruit “that needs to be consolidated and out the door to the retailers in very short order.”

In some ways, the industry’s needs there are similar to what they are in California or Florida, he said. In order to seal the pallet bag in the Tectrol process, a sheet of plastic needs to be inserted between the pallet and the trays of berries stacked on the pallet.

As in California and Florida, the strawberries arrive at the coolers in McAllen stacked on pallets but with no bottom sheet to seal to the pallet bag.  A piece of equipment called a “pallet squeeze” is used to grip the stack of trays and lift it off the pallet so the bottom sheet can be inserted.

“When you reach a critical amount of berries that are moving through the cooler, if you are using the Tectrol services, you are going to need the mechanical equipment to support getting the bag sealed” in an efficient manner “and getting the atmosphere inside the bag correctly,” MacLeod said.

The new Tectrol systems TransFresh has installed in McAllen all include “the newest version of our squeeze mechanism to put that bottom piece of plastic under the pallet” in a more efficient manner, enabling the cooler to handle a large volume of pallets in a short time frame, he said.

The new squeeze speeds ups the line by about 10 seconds per pallet, so “a well-run piece of equipment in a well-operating cooler can service probably close to 60 Tectrol pallets per hour.”

According to the TransFresh statement, “The TransFresh Innovations Team, in conjunction with Tectrol Services Network technicians, identified a need for better performing equipment at the front end of the Tectrol application process to enhance pallet bagging.”

The team “built, fabricated and tested a prototype that would simultaneously grip and lift pallet cartons” so a poly sheet can be “fed through underneath.” The new equipment, now installed in Loop Cold Storage facilities, “facilitates a consistent and seamless application and sealing process” for the pallet bags, “enhancing speed, operational proficiency, seal efficacy and safety.”

Eventually, TransFresh will likely put similar installations at the coolers in central Mexico, making a significant investment in infrastructure there, MacLeod said.

“Ideally, you want to get your Tectrol atmospheres around those strawberries as soon as possible,” said MacLeod. There are security and transportation issues to be resolved first in Mexico, but “I think someday we will be servicing a vast amount of pallets in central Mexico because there is a value in that and it makes sense.”