Post-Harvest Projects Success Story
(Link to Post-Harvest Fruit Project Description)
Fruit Packing Facility in Arroyo Chaté
Mr. Toribio Wayta producer of the facility in Arroyo Chaté was visited during July of 2006 and could make up some elements that show the results obtained by the project and the impacts generated by it. The fruit packing facility was designed and built to pack banana but right now it is being used for the post harvest process of a bigger variety of products including banana, orange, lemon and small banana. Some of the elements that prove these results and impacts are the following:
- All the products produced in Arroyo Chaté are packed by the facility.
- A replication effect has been generated considering the post-harvest phase and the needed infrastructure which positively affects the price and production.
- The final product presentation was greatly improved, before the product was sold dirty and now it is delivered clean which a much better selection process increasing the value of the production.
- The fruit previously produced got decomposed quicker, with the packing facility and the equipment, the fruit can be kept fresh for longer, improving the possibilities of sale.
- The fruit gets less damaged during manipulation compared with the traditional fruit management that was done before (packing in bags and stacking).
- Sun and rain protection of the product is fundamental to lengthen the life of the product.
- Using the ceiling of the packing facility more water can be stored to later use in different ways.
- Management, manipulation and loading is easier done through boxes.
- Work is done in a cooler environment due to the shade and the ventilation permitted.
Mr. Toribio said the following:
I am a banana and watermelon producer that has been living here for more than 30 years, originally requested a cable via but realized that the topography did not allow that, then I requested the packing facility….now everything gets packed…it has been really easy…everyone that stops by wants another like this one…before I delivered dirty fruit, now I deliver it clean…also before it got quickly ripe due to the sun, got wet with the rain and it got spoiled, in addition now it is much easier to load the boxes…for me it is special to work in the packing facility because it is cool and when it rains we gather water from the ceiling that we use to clean the fruit among other things…
