Redpack Packaging Machinery is hoping to boost the growing Polish tomato industry following the export of an automatic tomato feed system from its factory in Norwich bound for the eastern European country.

This automatic tomato feed system is to be integrated with a Redpack P325 trayless flow-wrapping machine already in continuous use in Poland at a state-of-the-art tomato facility.

The machine will be used to process ten hectares worth of large vine tomatoes [70-80mm] which are flow wrapped, typically at the rate of 80 packs per minute, in trayless packs of varying quantities.

The investment in the new automatic feed system is associated with the company’s plans to further automate its packing capabilities which, in turn, will provide the additional capacity to establish a market for six-pack plum tomatoes. It has plans to ensure these will be on the shelves of supermarkets in Berlin, Germany in time for the summer salad season.

Dave Barham, who is responsible for Redpack’s overseas sales, said: “Tomatoes play a huge part in today’s diets in many countries around the world. Here in the UK we consume more than 420,000 tonnes of tomatoes every year, of which some 300,000t are imported.

“Redpack is already a major supplier of flow-wrapping equipment to the tomato industry in the UK and the Netherlands, and I believe our success in Poland will see us supplying equipment to growers and contract packers in a number of other countries in the coming months.”

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