Bright Light Agribusiness selects Tomra for almond sorting
Bright Light Agribusiness has selected Tomra as its partner for an end-to-end almond sorting solution.
A total of 15 sorters will be installed at the company’s state-of-the-art almond processing facility in Hattah/Victoria to achieve the processing objective of a “pack-to-grade” quality in a single pass.
Simon Murphy, sales and marketing manager at Bright Light Agribusiness said: “After years of subcontracted processing, a carefully planned decision was made to invest in our own purpose-built almond processing facility in the heart of the Australian Sunraysia growing region in Victoria. This new facility, with an annual throughput of 25,000 tons, will have its own hulling and shelling, inshell-pack-out capabilities and will also be equipped to deliver a ‘pack-to-grade’ brown kernel raw-almonds product.”
Tim Orr, operations manager at Bright Light Agribusiness said: “Tomra’s BSI+ technology made the difference. Especially Tomra’s ability to target insect damage – not only major damage, but also the pinhole carpophilus-beetle bites – which was a real eye-opener. The BSI+ technology also delivered outstanding results on other, often challenging almond defects such as doubles, gummy-nuts, immature, molded, and stains.”
Ashley Hunter, senior vice president and head of Tomra food sorting, said: “We are very pleased to be the chosen sorting partner for this exciting project. The effort spent by Bright Light, PASS and the global Tomra organisation in defining the processing concept embraced the significant collective experience of the stakeholders to deliver a state of the art solution.”