StePac's headquarters are in the Galilee, Israel, but its majority shareholder is a British company DS Smith plc and a dedicated UK office, StePac UK, located at DS Plastics in Rugby, deals with StePac's UK business. “We are operating on a global basis, the UK is a very important market for us, as are the continent and the US,” says president Israel Ben-Tzur.
StePac officially opened its US offices and manufacturing plant in Phoenix, Arizona on August 15. The company now boasts full bag production capabilities, including extrusion, printing and bag making. The plant will be fully operational by January 2004 as StePac adds more machinery. The plant is 15,000 sqft and will employ 20 people within the next year.
The role of the plant is to provide Xtend's modified atmosphere (MA) and modified humidity (MH) packaging, and Xtend's post-harvest integrated system to North America.
The system includes technologically advanced support services provided by field experts who come from a variety of scientific backgrounds. The team works closely with the fresh-produce supply chain.
The new plant, through its location in Arizona, has the objective of increasing StePac's packaging production capacity and to do so closer to its North American customers and potential new clients.
“StePac USA is in business to serve customers in North America, Hawaii, Mexico, and the Caribbean,” says Ben-Tzur. “The plant in the US will allow closer production and delivery to our North American clients. This way we can be more responsive to customer needs via production and technical support.
“The Xtend® Integrated Post Harvest System includes post harvest technical support, quality assurance and sanitation services and logistics support. It is also designed to ensure successful global fresh-produce transactions, and that fruit and vegetables arrive at peak freshness with an excellent taste.”
The packaging includes bulk packaging-MA/MH liners which line cartons holding bulk produce for transactions, consumer/retail bags, which can be packed at source or down the supply chain, which extend® the shelf life of fresh produce, food service bags for the foodservice industry and custom-made cartons to suit the individual needs of clients.
A broad-based company, StePac has an interesting story to tell, having started life as a manufacturer of medical packaging. The medical and produce industries may not be immediately obvious bedfellows, but the primary focus of the medical side of the company was on infection control, giving StePac a solid understanding of bacteria, contaminants and cell biology.
Once the synergy was recognised, there was no looking back. “It was a natural evolution for us to move into produce,” says Ben-Tzur. “Fruit and vegetables are living organisms and bacteria needs to be suppressed to extend® shelf-life. It was more by chance than design, however, but once we moved into the produce arena we invested heavily in making it work; opening our own research and development centre and micro-biological laboratory.
“We hired experts in the field and started with vegetables in Israel, extending over time into fruit around the globe. Once we had a marketable product, we branded it with the Xtend® name to reflect the value o the service it offers to the fresh produce supply chain.
“What we do is something very special. We are trying to extend the shelf-life and storage period for a variety of fruits and vegetables. If we are successful our work has a significant impact on both exporting and importing countries. Wherever we are working in the world, what we are attempting to do is develop custom tailored packaging that enables fresh produce with its specific physiological characteristics meets the extended storage and shelf-life requirements within the logistical constraints that faces it. The design of the packaging takes into account the original condition of fruit, its sanitary conditions, and the environment through which it is going to travel; all with the aim of making the product able to deal with the consequences of any predictable changes in conditions around it.
“With avocados for instance, exporters can pack at source into our polymer bags designed to ensure that the fruit can be shipped under pre-determined conditions and guarantee that the fruit will arrive in exactly the same firm and fresh condition in which it left.”
He adds: “The UK market demands ready-to-eat avocados and I think we are the only people who provide this service in this way. It is a sophisticated process that involves us working closely with all parts of the chain, from the grower through the exporter, the importer and onto the end customer.”
Handling of the product is reduced to a bare minimum. “Sainsbury's is selling Fairtrade bananas in our packaging, bringing the fruit into the UK from central America and placing it on the shelf in the same bags that it is packed in at source in the plantation. We have similar projects with iceless vegetables, melons, stone fruit, cherries, avocados and other products and there is a huge amount of untapped potential.
“There are some product areas we have not yet got involved in, exotics for instance, but if a client wanted us to look at packaging for the exotic market, I'm sure by working together we could come up with the solution they require.”
The major barrier for purchasers of the best packaging media is often cost, but it shouldn't be, says Ben-Tzur. “Expensive is a relative term,” he adds. “It depends very much on supply and demand, but what we do is add value, not cost. For example, if you are able to bring a highly perishable produce item to market by substantially reducing waste, and by replacing the logistics cost from air to sea freight, and guarantee good quality arrival, would you say that a bag is expensive or cost effective? If you are looking for consistent delivery of quality produce throughout the year and across seasons, from a retail point of view achieving that is mitigation of most price concerns.
“The UK is a very impressive market from a packaging perspective ñ I would rank it as the most advanced in the world at this time. But every country has its unique characteristics and you can't take a broad brush approach, there are still parts of the UK market that are relatively under-developed.”
Case study examples usually tell an interesting story and the work StePac has done with an Argentinian cherry supplier illustrates the potential of its products. Phytosanitary barriers are the bane of many an exporter's life, if they are attempting to supply into the US. Argentinian cherry suppliers were no exception to this rule, but through the development of packaging that allows the fruit to be sterilised during transit, StePac enabled one exporter to gain United States Department of Agriculture approval for entry into the potentially lucrative north American market.
StePac has also joined forces with Sunridge, a major California-based distributor of fresh produce, to launch an innovative Bag-In-A-Box Iceless System for packaging, storage and distribution of broccoli.
StePac and Sunridge have jointly applied process control technology to monitor product quality at critical points throughout the production and supply chains.
The Iceless programmes began five years ago as bulk shipments of broccoli were sent from Salinas, California, to Japan. MA was important to the success of iceless shipments but was not sufficient to satisfy all of the logistical needs. StePac's technical team went back to the drawing board to brainstorm and came back with a brand new integrated system consisting of produce evaluation in the field, redesigned boxes enabling bagging and sealing in the field and cooling in the sealed bags without depalletising.
This offered a more efficient process, requiring less handling of produce, cost reduction, waste reduction, excellent, quality arrivals while falling within the framework of the documented QA programs.
According to Steve Henderson, Sunridge Farms president: “We've always looked to the market for direction on solution-driven product development. What we've heard in this case is ëfind a way to rid our facilities of ice, eliminate waxed cartons and decrease transportation costs without sacrificing product quality.' After evaluating several approaches we're very comfortable that StePac has taken a leadership position by providing a comprehensive and reliable solution for getting the job done right.”
“While StePac's patented Xtend® modified atmosphere and humidity bag technology is best in class, they recognise that the market does not buy technology ñ what it wants are products that provide value,” adds Jarrod Domingos, Sunridge Farms broccoli manager. He continues: “StePac spent the time to understand our processes. They worked with us to enhance those processes from field through distribution and created a science base system that delivers on its promise. The feedback from our customers is very positive.”
Sunridge Farms is a year-round supplier of more than 25 fresh vegetable products. The company has consistently grown at more than 15 per cent a year-on-year through the last 10 years. Henderson continues: “We've been known as an innovative shipper with a serious commitment to service. Our new iceless broccoli product is just one more example of our commitment to meet the ever changing needs of our customer base.”
Here's how it works:
• Packaging ñ Top quality broccoli harvested at moderate temperatures is packed in micro-perforated polymer bags placed in specially designed ventilated cartons and moved without delay to a nearby cooling facility.
• Temperature & RH Control ñ The broccoli is rapidly cooled to its optimal storage temperature, with constant computerised monitoring of pulp temperature and weight loss to ensure that no freezing injury or dehydration occurs.
• Transportation ñ 20 pallets and more than 1,100 cartons are loaded into each pre-cooled refrigerated container to maintain the coolchain. The broccoli temperature is monitored throughout the journey to the central distribution point. No space and no additional weight are taken up by ice.
The main benefits of using this packaging are:
• Quality ñ The broccoli is kept at top quality for an extended period by maintaining optimal levels of O2, CO2, relative humidity and temperature within the bag.
• Efficient logistics ñ The extended storage life and shelf life of the broccoli allows you to match supply to demand.
• Reduced costs ñ You don't pay for the ice and get more saleable broccoli per truck. The saving on freight cost has been calculated at up to 40 per cent.
• Top prices ñ For best quality bunches and florets available just when you need them, with hardly any wastage.
Ben-Tzur says: “We are experiencing a tremendous amount of interest but the proof is in the pudding and that will be when we see market acceptance of the program which is now in its infancy.”
He adds that StePac has also developed a retail, microwaveable bag for asparagus using Xtend® technology. “We have seen another company packing asparagus in retail bags, but without MA/MH film, we also know it has been done in the past without much success. This programme is still in development, but has huge market potentialóvery high sales projections.
“We are launching the iceless program in the US but this program will be available worldwide as all of our programs are.”
There are also products in development for sharonfruit and pomegranates. Work on sharonfruit packaging, with one of the world's largest producers Mor International, is at a more advanced stage in development. Trials have shown that Xtend® can extend storage life for 45 days after deastringency treatment. The deastringency treatment is a high CO2 treatment ñ 100 per cent for 24 hours ñ most sharonfruit undergoes this process.
“The Xtend® bag can eliminate astringency without using external CO2 ñ instead using the Xtend® bag along with relative temperature,” says Asaf Shachnai, Xtend® division manager, exotics. “At 5°C, astringency can be eliminated using an Xtend® bag within 10 days. At 0°C, astringency can be eliminated within 20 days. This is quite revolutionary, and means that you can pack and ship unripe fruits and they arrive ripe and ready to eat without having to undergo any other ripening process. This is a huge logistical and handling advantage. In addition the process of application of CO2 to fruit for deastringency, usually decreases shelf and storage life of sharonfruit.”
In pomegranates, a preliminary experiment with Xtend® MA/MH bags was conducted by the Volcani Centre, ministry of agriculture of Israel, an institution that StePac works closely with in its development of new products. The experiment showed very promising results of extended storage and shelf life of the Wonderful variety of pomegranates, the principal variety eaten around the world.
“We are now widening the trials to semi commercial, with Israeli companies as well as with one of the major pomegranate growers in California. We are aiming for an extended storage period of 120 days,” says Ben-Tzur.
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