There is an adage that if you are not moving forward you are going backward, and that certainly seems to be the philosophy of Watsonville, CA-based Pacific AgPak, the trade name of Pacific Agricultural Packaging.

“Every year we try to come up with something new and different to help the growers and the retailers,” said Dave Baum, president and owner of the 25-year-old firm.

Pacific AgPak offers numerous clamshell options to best suit the needs of strawberry producers.Founded in 1990 by his father-in-law, the well-known Mickey Crumpton, Baum took over the firm about a decade ago after Mr. Crumpton’s sudden death. He said the company’s research and development team is always fiddling with the design of the clamshell, and the materials used to make it, to come up with a better mousetrap, if you will.

This year he has several different innovations that he is touting. A couple of years ago, the firm started testing its “freight buster” clamshell for the strawberry industry, and this year it is anticipating greatly expanding those sales.

Baum said that by redesigning the angles of the clamshell itself, the company can greatly enhance the utilization of the cube in the traditional semi tractor-trailer. The firm’s clamshell will enable an eight-down packing configuration on a pallet. This is an improvement over the clamshells that typically result in a five-down or six-down configuration — both of which Pacific AgPak also offers.

“A six-down configuration equates to 2,688 trays per trailer,” said Baum. “Utilizing our eight-down configuration allows for 4,560 trays per trailers.”

That’s a huge increase, which saves retailers a ton of money on a cost-per-tray basis, and also enhances the sustainability of the strawberry operation by reducing the carbon footprint on a per-tray basis.

Baum said the company has also introduced a “quick-cool” clamshell that has an improved sustainability play. This clamshell has improved air vents that allows for faster cooling. He said this reduces the energy needed to bring the strawberries down to a shipping temperature. The new clamshell is designed to fit berries throughout the season, whether they are large or small.

“This helps the grower cool his fruit faster and helps increase the shelf life of the fruit,” said Baum.

He said the company is also constantly improving the recyclability of its product by using recycled materials in the manufacturing of the clamshells. And the clamshells themselves can also be recycled, completing the loop.

Finally, Baum boasted about a customer service aspect of his firm of which he is very proud.

“If you call other companies, you often go to a message machine,” he said. “That never happens at Pacific AgPak. You will never hear a message. Even after hours we roll the phone to a cell so someone always answers the call when you need them and have a problem.”