French apple shipper Blue Whale has launched a new compact box that allows 15 per cent more fruit to be fitted into consignments - with an equivalent decrease in CO2 emissions.

Changes in the dimension of the cardboard and the honeycomb cells allow 56 boxes to be loaded per pallet instead of 49, and 1,176 boxes to be held in a container against a previous figure of 1,029.

The compact box also offers a 90 per cent gain in handling time and a six per cent reduction in cardboard, and is 100 per cent recycled and recyclable.