The Indian Institute of Packaging (IIP), Mumbai, will design standard cartons for packaging of apple. The task was assigned to the IIP by the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) to make the produce of the state internationally competitive.
The institute is designing standard cartons for large, medium and small grades of apple, besides extra-small and pittu (smallest) size fruit.
A team of experts from Mumbai visited the state and after collecting the details of size and quantity of the fruit suggested cartons of different sizes for packaging.
It asked the Horticulture Department to pack five cartons for each grade apple and sent these to Mumbai, Hyderabad and other distant places for trial.
The institute has also specified the quality of paper and its thickness to be used for making corrugated board of 5-ply and 7-ply. It will not be possible to use these cartons like the telescopic ones currently in use to pack large quantities of fruit.
Against the standard weight of 20 kg, growers at times pack more than 30 kg of fruit to reduce the marketing cost, which hits the return.
The telescopic cartons have a base of 303 mm x 280 mm and the height could be extended up to 504 mm. The standard 20 kg carton being designed will have the same base but the height will be fixed at 310 mm and it will have a capacity to hold 80 large, 100 medium and 150 small apples.
The carton for packaging extra small (175 apple) and pittu (200 apple) will also have base of same dimension and height will be slightly more at 330 mm.
After conducting the trials, the carton will be approved for use by growers. Director of APEDA Prakash Thakur said the whole objective of standardising the packaging was to ensure that only 20 kg of fruit was packed in a carton of standard size as per the international norms.
- The task is assigned to the IIP by APEDA to make the produce internationally competitive
- The institute of packaging is designing standard cartons for large, medium and small grades of apple, besides extra-small and smallest fruit
- It has also specified the quality of paper and its thickness to be used for making corrugated board
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