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Cover story Cool runnings
Cool runnings
The importance of trust has never been greater than it is now.
For members of the horticulture supply chain, and the consumers they covet, transparency is key to growing trust and boosting industry sustainability.
That’s why recent efforts to enhance the table grape industry’s cold chain efficiency and international competitiveness on the export scene are being spruiked as an important piece in the traceability puzzle.
Industry pioneer Allan Anderson is part of that puzzle piece, having undertaken a career-long quest to improve postharvest quality through research and innovation.
Allan has worked in a variety of roles in the supply chain over the past 40 years, from grower and exporter through to supplier of data logging platforms for cold chain monitoring.
For the past year, Allan has been trialling a new logger, which uses FRIGGA technology to track the performance of export shipments from the moment they’re harvested to the time they reach the importer – all in real time.
While monitoring shipments is not new, exporters have been doing so since the first grape exports departed Australia in the 1980s – albeit using primitive monitors – what is unique about this particular trial is the technology’s ability to track temperature, location, light and humidity continuously, with the information “at your fingertips”, using a phone or computer to follow the fruit’s journey.
“We realised the importance of monitoring, particularly temperature, in containers,” Allan said. “It started back in the days of Keith Leamon. I was running Boyanda and got involved with Keith when we did the AQA (approved quality assurance) program, and that highlighted the importance.”
Things have advanced since the first sea shipments, but one thing that has remained steady over that time is Allan’s commitment to improving industry.
Seeing the potential of the FRIGGA real-time data loggers, Allan applied for funding through the Federal Government’s Traceability Grants Program and was successful.
Back in August, Allan’s company AND Fresh Mildura received funding to trial the technology across table grape exports, to see the benefit to Australia’s reputation as a premium supplier of table grape exports, research gaps in the cold chain and implement any changes necessary to improve industry practices.
Minister for Agriculture, Drought and Emergency Management David Littleproud said the trial had the potential to “boost export supply chain traceability”, which is an “increasingly valuable currency in these challenging times”.
“Traceability is about consumer trust and we know trust is an increasingly valuable currency in these challenging times,” Minister Littleproud said.
“Building more awareness about just how safe and healthy Aussie produce means more opportunities to export and more dollars for our farmers.”
Member for Mallee Anne Webster said the technology could identify any breaks in the cool chain, providing a greater guarantee to not just Australian growers and exporters but their customers.
“This is the technologically smart future of Australian agriculture, guaranteeing quality and surety of Australian products around the world. Technology like this is driving us towards $100 billion by 2030,” Dr Webster said.
The trial will take place on table grape shipments, one each to three separate countries, early in 2021 – one container each of Menindee Seedless, Thompson Seedless, and Crimson Seedless – beginning with the early season Menindees in January, Thompsons in February and Crimsons in March.
“We’ll use two multichannel loggers in every container,” Allan said. “We’ll go into the field at a given point in the day, perhaps around 10 o’clock in the morning, and we’ll put one of the loggers with the long probe into the actual centre of the box, and then we’ll leave the logger just sitting on top of the box. So we’ll be getting pulp temperature as well as ambient temperature.
“We’ll then do a correlation between those two loggers in the field, and when they’re going through the cold chain. Once they get loaded onto the pallet and into the container, it’ll still be doing that correlation.”
Driving progress
Anthony and Josh Cirillo have seen first-hand the benefit of the FRIGGA real-time loggers, and are spruiking the use of them, in their role as growers and transport operators. business Cirillo farms with their father Cosi, while Josh manages the transport arm of the business, Cirillo Transport.
“Using these loggers helps eliminate part of the grower’s risk,” Anthony said. “Everything comes back on the growers: the importer passes to the shipping lines, who pass them onto the exporter and the exporter passes it onto the freight company, and the freight company says, ‘No, it’s the grower’s fruit!’ ”
Anthony said returning some of the control to the growers and allowing cool chain visibility kept all parts of the export supply chain accountable, and provided a “very cheap insurance” to growers, and their exporters.
Josh agreed, and said that was part of the reason they had aligned with Allan and his real-time data loggers in their role as a fruit packer and transport company.
“We trialled the loggers on some initial shipments when our transport department was new,” Josh said. “As growers as well as packers/freight providers, we understand the level of trust involved.
“By putting one of these devices in their loads, it allows growers to track the fruit from their shed to when it gets to my warehouse; you can see the temperature, and see when we are loading the container and inspecting it that it continues to sit at that temperature.
“It’s that little bit extra insurance, which – as a grower and transport company – we believe is worth it. It
Left: ANDFresh director Allan Anderson (right) and grower Anthony Cirillo explore the capabilities of real-time data logging.
helps maintain honesty.”
Keep cool and carry on
For exporter and industry stalwart David Minnis, real-time monitoring provides a “clear advantage” for Australia’s table grape exports.
David said while most shipping lines and transport companies were much more reputable now than when table grape exports first began, due to an improvement of performance and technological advances in equipment, there can be a mentality of “it’s best you don’t know”.
Shipping lines don’t release the recorded temperature of a container, David said, which can hinder an exporter’s claim if any outturn issues ensue.
“In South Africa, you can put the carriage temperature on the bill of lading and say ‘This fruit will be carried at 0°C or 1°C’,” David said. “The shipping companies in Australia have never allowed us to do that. When the container arrives in the port of discharge the air temperature measurements during the voyage are recorded on the Partlow chart which the shipping company removes and keeps as a record that isn’t made available to the exporter. Similarly for in-transit cold treated fruit the three thermocouple recorders are downloaded by the shipping company and made available to the quarantine authorities but not necessarily to the exporters.
“If the exporter didn’t have some sort of recorder in with the fruit, he
would never be able to prove that the shipping company did the wrong thing and carried the fruit at the wrong temperature.
“When you lodge a claim they will prevaricate and try to take as long as possible to settle that after 12 months any claim becomes null and void.”
Manage the outcome
The accuracy of the FRIGGA technology provides exporters and growers with greater insurance than they have ever had, making each area of the supply chain more accountable for its role in the fruit’s journey.
While some other recorders only measure ambient temperature, FRIGGA is capable of measuring pulp temperature to get a very accurate read.
Allan said while two normal USB recorders were normally needed for insurance purposes, one FRIGGA logger would satisfy claim requirements. Real-time monitoring also allows exporters to make smarter decisions to protect their brand, Australia’s reputation, and their bottom line.
“If we can monitor using the new recorders the performance of the containers from Australia to the market that’s a clear advantage,” David said. “Not just putting recorders in the container at the time of loading and having to recover them when they’ve arrived in the market and having to download them and see how the container performed on the way, which is what most of the country still does.
“If you can download the performance of the container while it’s travelling to the market you’re in a much better position to make a decision.”
Both David and Anthony specified that having early insight to be able to divert a shipment to another market, if, say the market was expecting premium fruit and the data recorded showed less than optimal temperatures – which could cause distress – put exporters in the driver’s seat, not left playing a waiting game.
Tracing the cool chain
While change can be confronting for some, technological advances in traceability can only lead to improving industry sustainability.
Allan’s trial aims to overcome any shortcomings in the cool chain – be it at a grower, exporter, freight, shipping or importer level – and raise awareness about the advances in fresh fruit monitoring.
As the highest valued fresh fruit export in Australia, improving practices can only enhance Australia’s standing as a provider of premium fruit – with the best Crimson Seedless in the world, according to David.
“(Increasing traceability) is just another way of showing we care about our produce, and that’s what it comes down to,” Anthony said. “It’s a big plus.” v
