Supply Chain, Education • 2 min reading time

Circular Supply Chain main focus of Dutch Fruit Tech Campus

Maurice Wehrmeijer published on 20 November 2020

Euro Pool System

Cooperation between education and business at the intersection of innovation and education is in full development. Euro Pool System, the market leader of reusable packaging in the European fresh food supply chain, joined the Fruit Tech Campus in Geldermalsen, The Netherlands this week. As a leading supplier of reusable folding trays, Euro Pool System is working towards a sustainable future, together with partners from cultivation, retail, packaging, and cooling technology by further improving the circular supply chain.

Euro Pool System

Euro Pool System is the supplier of the tray for fruits and vegetables that almost every visitor to European supermarkets knows. They have been operating a depot for reusable folding trays in Geldermalsen since the 1990s, which also has its own cleaning facility. These trays pack a large part of the fruit from the Rivierenland region. In Geldermalsen alone, more than 10 million trays are processed annually.

Gerjo Scheringa (CEO): “As the main supplier of reusable packaging in the European fresh food supply chain, we are constantly looking for innovations with which we can make the pooling process more sustainable. In 2021 and 2022 we are renewing the cleaning facility in Geldermalsen: the perfect opportunity to equip the new facility with the latest technology and to develop and test new innovations at this location. This varies from new cleaning sensors to data collection”.

Together with partners, the Fruit Tech Campus looks at how they can analyse and optimise the shelf life of fruit using intelligent technology, such as computer chips and software. Harrij Schmeitz, Director of Innovation Fruit Tech Campus: “We are very pleased with Euro Pool System joining as a partner. By working together on the development and use of Returnables & IoT, in other words, trays with a chip, we are constantly improving the chain. And our work on Coldstore & Data will help us to recognise opportunities for innovation in storage and ripening of fruits and vegetable. Euro Pool System’s tray plays an important role in this: an essential part of the circular supply chain”.

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Maurice Wehrmeijer

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