This virtual tour shows you the activities in the Kelowna, High Road, pear packaging plant. This plant is dedicated to packing pears. The equipment in this facility is very different from the apple packaging plants.

Apples emit ethylene. Ethylene ripens pears. In our storage facilities, we store pears separate from apples in rooms with separate cooling and ventilation systems. This applies for pears in bins and for packaged pears.

See our FAQ section if you want to know how to use apples to speed up the process of ripening pears for eating.

Our growers have pear orchards throughout the Okanagan Valley. The growers are responsible for delivering their pears to our closest receiving location. There we consolidate the pears in separate rooms and, when required, send them to the Pear Plant.

In addition to our grower's pears, we also pack pears for a private organization and three other cooperatives. This is the only dedicated pear packaging equipment located in the Okanagan Valley.

The Pear Plant has a large cold storage room. Here pear bins are stored until required by the packaging line. This is what the storage looks like.

Pear Bin Storage

When required, a forklift driver retrieves the pear bins from storage, weighs the pears, and loads the bins onto the pear line. The bins are forced underwater --- and the pears float!

Pears don't float, they sink! Apples float. Try it at home!

For apples we use tap water. For pears, we use tap water plus sodium silicate. The sodium silicate allows the pears to float. Floating fruit out of bins is much gentler than tipping the bin or even removing the fruit by hand. As the bin is slowly submerged, the fruit is gently removed.

Pear Bins Are Submerged

Pears are very delicate. Before filling the bins, growers place plastic liners against the side of the bins to minimize scuffing the pears against the bin sides during transit. These plastic liners also float out of the bin when the bin is submerged. The liners are removed and discarded. The bin is reused.

The pears leave the water by riding the elevator. Similar to apples, the fruit is thoroughly washed. Unlike apples, we don't dry nor wax pears. Wet pears travel better along the packaging line! The wet pears travel by belts to the sorting areas. Here the fruit grade is determined by manual sorting.

Wet Pears

Sorting

Defective pears are placed onto belts that take them to bin fillers. One bin is for culls, these are for juice. The other bin is for cannery grade pears; these are sold to a cannery or a baby food manufacturer. An equipment operator supervises the bin filler operation.

Bin Fillers

After sorting onto various belts, the pears are transferred into grader cups. These cups will carry the pears along the grader until released into the appropriate tubs. The tubs are a collection area for similar size and grade pears.

Travel Along Grader

Released Into Tubs

The pears accumulate in the tubs. Each pear is hand-wrapped and placed into a box. No kidding! Employees actually pack every pear by hand --- and they are paid piecework! The more boxes they pack, the more they are paid.

Hand-Packing Pears

Hand-Packing Pears

Hand-packing is very physically demanding. Pears are heavy. Strong hands and wrists are mandatory. Strong arms are required to lift the 47 lb boxes!

One employee can pack anywhere from 150 to 200 boxes per day! During an eight-hour shift, 7.5 hours of work time, that is 2.25 to 3.00 minutes per box! That time includes taking an empty box inner, inserting a plastic liner, hand-wrapping every pear and arranging by pattern in the box, inserting a box outer over the finished box, putting two bar code stickers on the box outer, and placing the finished box on a take-away line!

Here is a photograph of one side of a packing area. Four sides exist.

Hand-Packing Pears

Hand-Packing Pears

A machine inserts the top pad in the box.

Machine Inserts Top Pad

A laser reads the two bar codes stickers attached to the box outer by the hand-packer. One sticker identifies the variety, grade, and size of pear. This information is now printed on the side of the box. The other sticker identifies the employee who packed the box.

Reading Bar Codes, Boxes Stamped

A computer records the information from both stickers. This data will be communicated every evening to the inventory database and the payroll database. Employees will receive a record of how much they packed each day with their payroll information. Employees who are not packing are paid an hourly wage.

Randomly selected boxes are removed from the line and inspected by quality control. The quality, quantity, sizes, and box weight must meet government standards.

Quality Control

After passing quality control, the boxes accumulate in a queuing area before being sealed and strapped.

Boxes Queue

Boxes Sealed & Strapped

Since many grades and sizes are being packed at the same time, finished boxes arrive in random order. Employees hand-stack the finished product onto the appropriate pallets. A forklift driver removes the completed pallets.

Finished Product Onto Pallets

Driver Removes Pallets

A straddle carrier takes the finished pallets to the Vaughan Plant shipping pear room or to a pear CA room.

Straddle Carrier Moves Finished Product

Typically, the Pear Plant operates from late August to the middle of December. The pear varieties packed in this plant include Bartlett, Bosc, Flemish, and D'Anjou.

See our CA tour for more information about CA.

The Kelowna Vaughan Avenue Plant Mainline tour includes a tour of the shipping facilities.