Revolutionising Agricultural Supply Chains: The Power of Tosca’s Reusable Foldable Crates
Growers in the agricultural sector, understand the importance of having an efficient supply chain management system to ensure that fresh produce reaches customers and food processors in optimal condition and with a competitive price.
When dealing with products that have a low unit price, such as lettuce for example, supply chain costs can significantly affect the final retail price. As a result, ensuring maximum efficiency in logistics and operations is crucial for growers looking to avoid any unnecessary cost increase that would eat into their profit margin. In other words, a minor increase in supply chain costs can have a major impact on a grower’s profitability.
Traditional single-use crates may be a convenient way to support a grower’s logistics and operations, but they can come with inefficiencies in standardisation, compatibility, and traceability. These inefficiencies that can lead to additional costs, product losses and sustainability issues.
At Tosca, we offer a range of reusable, nestable and foldable plastic crates that address these challenges and provide cost and efficiency savings for growers.
Increase efficiency with standardisation and compatibility
One of the main challenges that growers face is the lack of standardisation and compatibility between crates from different suppliers. With multiple suppliers using varied sizes and shapes of crates, this leads to inefficiencies in palletisation and transport.
At Tosca, our standard, 60cm x 40cm size crates are designed to fit both European (80cm x 120cm) and Industrial size (100cm x 120cm) pallets, especially our own durable, reusable plastic pallets, optimising pallet loads and reducing transport costs.
Reduce labour costs and product damage
Additional labour costs are incurred due to extra manipulation required and the difficulty in stacking unstable single-use crates. Not only that but unstable crates do not offer adequate protection for the fruit and vegetables inside so produce is at risk from damage. Unstable crates are also prone to collapse and could injure employees.
Reusable plastic crates are robust, stackable, and stable, reducing the need for additional labour and can be stacked more efficiently. They are also compatible with existing automated systems as well as our own reusable plastic pallets.
Lower transport costs
With traditional single-use crates, reverse logistics and storage can be costly as they take up the same amount of space when empty as they do when full as they do not fold. They therefore require more space and handling procedures.
At Tosca, our crates are designed to be foldable and nestable when empty, making them compact and easy to store, reducing storage and transport costs. More empty folded crates fit into a standard truck.
Did you know? You would need 7 trucks to hold the same number of rigid single-use crates than one truck of folded crates?
Better produce traceability
Inefficiency in product traceability leads to manual work and difficulties in tracking the product. For example, when a cooperative consists of multiple growers cultivating various tomato varieties across different fields, they must manually track which field a particular tomato comes from, identify its variety, and note the responsible farmer which takes time.
With our reusable plastic crates, we can offer, if requested, traceability of the asset and product inside, making it clear who the grower was and what the source of the product was. This eliminates manual work and provides growers with full traceability of their produce.
Better asset control, fewer losses
Lack of asset control results in asset losses and the need to purchase more crates. With traditional single-use crates, there is no asset control, leading to asset losses and the need to purchase more crates.
At Tosca, we offer a flexible service that provides pooling, rental, or purchase options to fit your needs without high upfront investment costs. This provides growers with more control over their assets and eliminates additional costs associated with purchasing and maintaining crates, leaving them to focus on their core business operations.
The right crate for the right produce
We understand that different markets may have unique requirements for its fresh produce packaging and transport needs. That is why we offer product research and development specific to each market’s needs and offer the right solution. We work closely with growers and distributors to understand their specific requirements and develop bespoke designs and solutions tailored to meet those needs.
Our consultancy approach and expert support optimises supply chain operations and delivers total packaging solutions. Growers can focus on producing high-quality produce while we take care of their packaging and transport needs.
Sustainability solutions that benefit your business and the environment
Sustainability solutions are at the core of our business and everything we do. Our foldable crates deliver improved cube efficiency, resulting in fewer trucks on the road, reduced CO2 emissions, and lower transport costs. At the end of its useful life, our 100% recyclable assets eliminate single-use packaging waste, making us a sustainable solution provider for growers.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Tosca’s reusable, foldable plastic crates offer growers in the agricultural sector with a more efficient, cost-effective, and sustainable solution than traditional single-use crates. Our flexible service, customisable solutions, and consultancy approach offer growers tailored solutions to solve specific challenges that they may face. Additionally, our strong and ventilated design crates provide product protection and end-to-end solutions, while our sustainability solutions deliver improved cube efficiency and 100% recyclable assets at the end of their useful life.
Contact Tosca today to learn more about how our solutions can help your business.
