Scottish expertise in crop storage technology looks set to result in a substantial order from Egypt for an innovative cooling process which can drastically reduce the current very high level of waste in the production of specialist crops, reported Scotsman.com on Thursday.
The news service said that on Wednesday, an Egyptian delegation headed by Atef Elansari of the agricultural engineering department at Alexandria University watched a prototype unit in action at West Scyrne Farm, near Carnoustie in Angus. They were greatly impressed, says the reports.
The man behind this new advance is Frank Pirie, who for more than 25 years has run a highly successful company in Ayrshire specializing in a wide range of crop storage systems which have been exported all over the world.
He was quoted as saying that "last year I was invited to Egypt to discuss the problems they have with post-harvest technology in their rapidly expanding high value fruit and exotic vegetable sector. Because of the very high temperatures at harvest, waste can be as high as 40 percent with perishable crops, and obviously this represents a huge loss in revenue."
Another problem that it is no longer commercially viable to use air freight to transport produce to Europe where the UK is a major market. To allow fruit and vegetables to be shipped by sea the temperature of the crop must be brought right down, according to the report.
The design brief was that Egypt would be interested in a unit which could reduce a quantity of up to three tons from 30 degrees to zero in two hours. In a trial, a consignment of strawberries was cooled from 20 degrees to 3.4 degrees in 57 minutes. Pirie said: "I think you can see we've got it right."
Elansari said: "This is an excellent unit and we are really happy with the design.
"I think there could be a considerable market. All the cooling stations we have in Egypt use water sprays which is not appropriate for strawberries and table grapes."
To emphasize the need to cut waste, it was explained that out of a total production of 200,000 tons of table grapes Egypt can only export 4,000 tons. At the same time, production of a wide range of high value crops will expand rapidly over the next decade as almost one million acres of land is reclaimed from the desert.
Pirie is confident that a deal can be struck and is currently negotiating a package, said the news service – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
