If you have taken the Summerland Pregrade Line virtual tour you may recall that all apples are separated into similar sizes and grades and carefully put back into bins. The apples in these bins are then packaged on the Summerland Tray Line or the Kelowna Specialty Line.

The Summerland Tray Line does not have sizing capability. Therefore, all bins destined for this packaging line were previously run through the Pregrade Line and temporarily returned to a climate controlled storage room.

Typically customers outside North America will request orders several weeks in advance since they must book space on container ships. The order will include the date when the container ship must be loaded.

Transit time to the port of Vancouver or Seattle is approximately one day. Calculating the transit time to port, cooling time, packaging time, pregrade time, bin trucking time, and potential CA room venting time provides an estimate when the apples must be moved to the Summerland Plant in order to arrive at the container ship on the desired date. Often truck drivers will receive a specific time of day when they must arrive at the loading docks.

Customers in Canada and the United States receive apples by truck directly from our plants. Although specific customer orders are common, we also maintain a finished goods inventory for regular items purchased by these customers.

Many apple varieties, grades, and sizes are packed on the Tray Line. In addition, several types of boxes, PLU labels, tray sizes, and various other packaging materials may be required. The water temperature and line speed is often slightly different for each variety.

In order for all the required fruit, packaging supplies, and employee crews to efficiently produce the desired finished product, sufficient advance planning is required. A schedule must be prepared so that everyone involved in the production is familiar with the customer's wishes.

The Lead Hand is responsible for ensuring the Tray Line production happens according to plan. The Lead Hand is responsible for managing the employees, fruit, supplies, and equipment on the Tray Line. You may think of this person as the conductor directing an orchestra of professional musicians! The schedule contains the desired notes; everyone works together to produce the desired music.

Schedules need to be produced for each day the Tray Line is operating. When the apples are required for packaging the bins are retrieved from the climate controlled room and loaded with a forklift onto the Tray Line. The automatic bin feeder gently feeds the bins, one-by-one, into the Tray Line.

Forkloft Loading The Tray Line

The bins are submerged. The apples float. The empty bins are reusable.

Bins Are Submerged

The apples are removed from the water by an elevator. Before we put apples in a box we always wash them. That's how we ensure the fruit is clean.

Apples Ride The Elevator Out Of The Water

Apples Are Washed

Apples come from the orchard. Apples have a natural wax coating. This coating attracts soil and dust. Therefore the apples must be thoroughly washed. Unfortunately, washing also removes some of the natural wax from the apple. Therefore, once the apples are washed and dried, we replace the natural wax removed during the washing process with a vegetable based wax. One gallon of wax is enough to polish and protect five to eight tons of apples! The brushes apply wax to the apples.

Natural Wax Removed Is Replenished

After washing, drying, waxing, and drying the apples enter the sorting table. Damaged or imperfect shaped apples are removed. They are put back into bins and sold to juice plants.

Sorting Royal Gala Apples

Immediately after the sorting tables a row of labellers attach tiny PLU stickers to the apples.

Labellers Apply PLU Sticker

Different size apples require different size trays. Alternating tray patterns for the same size apples helps to minimize motion during transit. The correct size trays and tray pattern are manually fed into the line. The trays feed from beneath the line. The apples move automatically onto the trays.

Tray Feed

Employees sort and position the apples in the trays. Trays are manually placed into boxes.

Positioning Apples In Trays

Trays Placed Into Boxes

Apples and Packaging Material Meet

Random boxes are removed from the line by quality control. The box weight, number of apples, color, and quality are inspected.

Quality Control

Finally the grade and size is stamped on the box, the lid is sealed, the boxer outer is taped to the box inner, and the box is hand-stacked on pallets.

Box Lid Is Sealed

Hand-Stacked Onto Pallets

After packaging, the apples need to stay in a climate controlled room for 48 hours to attain optimum shipping temperature. A forklift is used to move the apples to the storage racks.

Into Storage Racks For Cooling

Finished Product

Orders are electronically received in the shipping office from the marketing agency, B.C. Tree Fruits Ltd. Orders are assembled in the loading area prior to the trucks arrival. Once the truck arrives at the loading dock, it is quickly loaded.

Loading

Outside View, Loading Fresh Apples Into Shipping Containers For Asia

Loading procedures vary depending on the type of truck or container being loaded.

Trucks destined for Canada or US customers are loaded in reverse order of drop-offs. In other words, the first customer where the truck will stop is loaded into the rear of the truck.

Containers destined for overseas customers are sealed at the loading dock. They will not be opened until they arrive at the customer's warehouse. A temperature recorder placed in the container will record the container temperature throughout the voyage. Common destinations include: Philippines, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Bangladesh, Mexico, Venezuela, Columbia, and Iceland.