Argentina’s peanuts on RollerForks®
During recent years Argentina showed an increasing performance in peanuts and peanuts product exports such as raw peanuts, blanched or chopped peanuts, peanut paste and peanut butter. Blanched peanut is by far the most exported product among the range.
The production area is placed in the center of the country, mainly in Cordoba province, although some encouraging results have aroused form other neighbor provinces. This meant a continuous effort in development through investment, which will continue in order to increase production rates and to remain in the highest standards of quality required in the international markets.
Recent statistics showed exports of nearly 430.000 tons in 2008 being the main five destinations Holland 46%, Great Britain 7.3%, Russia 6.9% , Poland 4.7% and France 4.1%, Holland is by far the biggest Argentinean peanut product customer. Blanched peanut share is over 70%.
The packaging choice in the blanched peanuts trade is the “big bag” containing 1250 kg of product and is at this point where the peanuts export market and the RollerForks relationship starts.
Not many years ago the peanut big bags (FIBC) were exported on wooden pallets but increasingly sanitary restrictions like ISPM 15 on these pallets moved both exporters and importers to look for alternatives and the slip sheet became the solution to the problem.
Wooden pallets were easily moved by fork lift trucks, but when the slip sheets arrived, things changed and the containers loading procedure was not so easy anymore. First option was the push pull system but this attachments required hydraulic connections and decreased the loading capacities of the fork lift. When RollerForks were presented to the peanuts exporters, they immediately caught the companies attention because they were very easy to install and use to load the peanuts big bags with the additional advantage that the RollerForks can be also used to move standard wooden pallets, something you cannot do when the push pull is mounted on the fork lift. Another big advantage was that the RollerForks didn’t make use of hydraulics which is a big plus regarding the HACCP regulations.
Several main Argentinean peanuts exporters like Olega S.A., went already to RollerForks as a load movement solution and more than 40 % of the total product is loaded with RollerForks.
RollerForks helps in costs and space savings in these companies, since the peanuts big bags on the slip sheets are directly taken from the big bag filler to the warehouse without the need of a pallet. The container loading operation is also simple and fast. On the other end, the importer unloading operation can also take advantage of RollerForks simplicity and efficiency; big European importers already have RollerForks for this task.
Website: www.raypac.net
