Wellington packer on the forefront of optical sorting of pomegranates and stonefruit
These are peak packing weeks at 21-year old Sonlia Fruit Packers outside Wellington, where late plums like African Delight, September Yummy, Angelenos (and there
are a lot of plums this season) and the last nectarines coincide with early pomegranates at what is Africa’s largest pomegranate packer.
“It’s been a strong stonefruit crop thus far and it will be the largest volume of stonefruit we’ve yet packed,” says JC Muller, chief executive officer at Sonlia Fruit Packers.
He notes that the new pomegranate season is two weeks later than last year. The early fruit look cleaner than last year, fewer wind blemishes and good sizes with expectations of high packouts; they’re expecting to pack 6,400 tonnes of pomegranates this year, a normal pomegranate crop.