Since its beginnings in 1924, the company has installed 6,500 sorting lines, dedicated to more than 45 types of fruit and 100% made in UNITEC – at the headquarters in Lugo, Emilia-Romagna – at customers located in more than 65 countries on 5 continents. UNITEC celebrates the installation in Italy of its 1000th quality sorting and selection machine.
Very recently, with the latest installation of APOFRUIT in Pievesestina (Cesena, Emilia-Romagna), UNITEC technicians have therefore placed in Italy the 1000th sorting and quality selection machine since the company was founded. Symbolic result that bears witness to the history but also to the passion for research and innovation that have always characterized UNITEC and which have allowed it to achieve absolute relevance in the sorting of fruit and vegetables.
With this important achievement, UNITEC has arrived in Rimini for Macfrut 2022 as technical partner and sponsor of the International Cherry Symposium, presenting its patented systems, entirely designed and developed in-house, to select the internal and external quality of cherries, in order to be able to guarantee the standards required by the destination markets.
Indeed, thanks to Cherry Vision, Cherry Vision 3.0 and UNIQ Cherry, more than 27 billion cherries are selected, thus making it possible to put on the market more than 1 million tons of product with qualities systematically distributed according to distances and particularities. destination markets. UNITEC continues to be inspired by the market to design new innovative solutions.
It is precisely to meet the needs of packaging plants around the world that UNITEC has developed the UNI Robotics division, specializing in intelligent robotic solutions, allowing users to reduce fixed costs and optimize work thanks to the use of anthropomorphic and non-anthropomorphic robots, to ensure a significant increase in efficiency, precision and delicacy in the handling of fruits and their packaging. The robotic solutions work 24/7, guaranteeing greater fluidity of activities, greater efficiency and performance of operations.
Last but not least, correct fruit selection not only brings financial benefits to growers and distributors, but also consumer satisfaction. With UNITEC solutions, packers can reduce waste at origin and give a second life to fruits that are not suitable for the fresh market, on average around 12% of processed fruits from the more than 45 species for which UNITEC manufactures lines of sorting. This represents approximately 1 million tons of products not suitable for the fresh market per year, which – to give a more tangible idea – corresponds to the food waste produced in Italy in 1 year, which would otherwise end up in landfills, according to the estimate from the International Waste Watcher Observatory.
To date, the company has installed 6,500 sorting lines, dedicated to more than 45 types of fruit and 100% made in UNITEC – at the headquarters in Lugo, Emilia-Romagna – with customers located in more than 65 countries in the 5 continents. Thanks to the 6,500 sorting lines installed, more than 350 billion fruits are sorted – i.e. approximately 40 fruits per person in the world – thus selecting internal and external quality in order to package similar fruits in terms of organoleptics, characteristics and shelf life. to meet market requirements.
