In a constantly developing market, De Marchi maintains its prominent position by investing in innovative technologies. The company decided to further automate its production line to increase its product quality and yield. Since installing a TOMRA 5B sorting machine in February 2023, there have been clear improvements in product sorting and volumes – results which indicate this partnership has only just begun.
The De Marchi Group’s operations range from the large-scale cultivation of fruit, vegetables and greens to the production of many different frozen foods and “in Nature” foods for Brazil and abroad. In a demanding market, the company seeks to go one step beyond customers’ expectations by offering higher-quality, healthier, and, above all, more sustainable products.
Agribusiness accounts for over 23% of Brazil’s gross domestic product. Brazil’s fruit and vegetable market has been growing steadily and is now a very important part of the economy. Although fruit and vegetables are not yet ingrained in the Brazilian population’s diet, their popularity is increasing, boosted by natural and organic foods that consumers favor for their health benefits.
Carlos Alberto De Marchi, industrial director at De Marchi, emphasizes the importance of his business partnership with TOMRA. “It gives us several advantages,” he says, “the main one being the increased quality of our product.” He explains that before the TOMRA 5B’s installation, the process was “completely manual”, but now the TOMRA machine has brought great progress, “not only in terms of resource management but also in terms of economics. Not only was the increase in profitability measurable, but also important was the food safety that the machine added to the product. In addition, we know that labor work is becoming more complex every day. People can’t do repetitive work with a high degree of concentration for very long, so the machine greatly increases reliability in the selection process.”
Six months after installing the TOMRA machine and working with various types of fruit and vegetables, the feedback couldn’t be more positive. Carlos Alberto De Marchi says that “with the automation of the line, we have a 30% increase in productivity and much greater safety in the products we produce, which would have been impossible with the manual process. Moreover, we’re bringing together profitability, reliability, and agility in our processes to reach higher levels. We have exceptional personalized support from TOMRA through various channels, which makes all the difference.”
“This partnership is key in a sector as important as fruit and vegetables. De Marchi is an innovative company with a strong presence on the national and international market, and it’s undoubtedly a very important partnership for TOMRA in the minimally processed fruit and vegetable segment. It’s an honor to supply a high-tech optical food sorting solution to one of Brazil’s largest companies in the sector,” said João Medeiros, area sales manager of TOMRA Food Brazil. “TOMRA designed the solution together with De Marchi, taking great care over the details because the customer’s range of products is large and requires a complete solution that can add value to all the products in the range. The demonstration of the machine at TOMRA’s modern test center in Santiago, Chile, was also of great importance in defining the project.”
The main benefits of using the TOMRA 5B optical sorter are maximum food safety, higher quality product sorting, optimized production line throughput, and ease of operation. Product quality becomes more consistent, and employees who previously worked on sorting can be redirected to other important parts of the production line.
Find out more at: https://www.tomra.com/en/food