Jorge Searle, commercial manager of the Agroindustrial area of Southern Solutions, will be one of the exhibitors at the next EXPO Ciruelas Secas, which will take place on Wednesday, March 20.
“Innovations in the Industrial Process of Plums” is the name of the talk in which Jorge Searle will present at the most relevant event on prunes in Chile and organized by Chileprunes.
On this occasion, the specialist will focus on how we can improve production processes in Chile, the technologies and innovations that we have available in the industrial process of prunes and that, among other benefits, allow us to reduce the presence of pits in the product to a minimum.
Other questions that will be answered at the congress are: What does “0% stone plums” mean for our buyers? Is there more pit presence in Chilean prunes than in those from the rest of the world? What factors influence whether our plums may have more or less pits? What objectives can we set as an industry in terms of the presence of pits in our prunes?
It is known – Jorge Searle points out – that the standards for the presence of pits in prunes are increasingly demanding, and there are even markets that are willing to pay more for a product that can ensure the absence of pits, with the aim of avoid consumer complaints. In fact, he says, the United States offers dehydrated plums with lower pit presence rates than Chile. What is this about? Agricultural factors? Productive? Does this rate of stone presence change when changing the caliber we are processing?
One of the solutions for the Chilean industry
Southern Solutions has been representing Ashlock in Chile for more than 10 years, the world’s leading manufacturer of plum pitting machinery. “The company is characterized by providing an excellent after-sales service, making weekly visits to all its clients and accompanying them each season in their production processes. This way of working with clients has made us true specialists in each of the stages of this operation,” says the executive.
This 2024, Ashlock makes available to the industry – it adds – its revolutionary sorter called Vision System, a system that has been tested in the US and Chile for more than two years with excellent results. It is available commercially, and “it is precisely one of the responses that the Chilean prunes industry has to equal and even surpass countries with better processes in terms of stone presence,” says Searle.
