Custom-made ‘strawberry cushion’: transporting strawberries safely to Japan
Levarht is a grower and supplier of fruits and vegetables. They produce the most delicious fruit and vegetable varieties all year round. They then export these throughout the entire world. For example, the company exports many strawberries to Japan each year. Strawberries are considered a luxury product there. Bakeries, lunchrooms and cafés use strawberries as a garnish on pastries, cakes and other dishes. The strawberries are processed with the utmost care. It is therefore important that strawberries are received in ‘top condition’.
The journey from the Netherlands to Japan is very long and the strawberries are exposed to all kinds of hardships. To ensure the strawberries arrive in perfect condition in Japan, Levarht has used a standardised strawberry cushion in recent years. However, this solution is not perceived as ideal. The strawberries fairly regularly tend to roll during transport. This damaged the strawberries and they were consequently no longer suitable for use.
To ensure that the strawberries would be better protected during transport in the future, Levarht decided to look for a custom-made solution. The wish was to develop a strawberry cushion that would ensure perfect protection for the strawberries during transport. On arrival in Japan the strawberries had to be lying in the same position as when they were packaged during harvesting. Initially, they contacted a supplier of a certain type of ‘foam’. Because foam is made of a thicker material than plastic and therefore more difficult to process, this supplier was unable to form the material quite the right way. For this reason, Levarht started looking for a party capable of punching and forming the foam the right way. After pursuing various options they ended up at Nedupack Thermoforming. “We worked before with Nedupack for the development of various shakers for vegetables, so we already knew what to expect,” says Marcel van der Weijden of Levarht. Nedupack, together with Levarht, ultimately came up with the perfect packaging.
Arco Oliemans, Levarht’s contact in Japan, had this to say: “We are seeing a marked difference since we started using the custom-made strawberry cushion for our strawberries. On arrival in Japan, the strawberries continue to be perfectly positioned in the packaging and are significantly less often damaged.”
“For us as Nedupack this is the best compliment we could possibly receive,” says Remco Brouwer of Nedupack. “The custom development of packaging (a strawberry cushion), in this case ensures that we are better able to protect the strawberries during transport. This is the difference we want to make in comparison with standardised packaging.”
