Potato and fruit Chinese processor Kaida invested in two large agricultural product processing plants in Beijing and Inner Mongolia, for whom Tomra’s steam peeling and optical sorting solutions were chosen.
After 15 years of development, Kaida (Beijing Kaida Hengye Agricultural Technology Development Co., Ltd) has grown into a leading vegetable and fruit chips exporter in China. The company’s products continue to become popular in Japan, South Korea, Australia, the US and the EU countries, where the safety regulation are strict.
By incorporating a complete product value chain including R&D, farming, postharvest processing and sales, Kaida has become an expert in processing fruits and potatoes. It is also recognized as a distinguished high-tech company with a number of labels in the Chinese agricultural processing industry.
Speaking on the partnership with the technology producer, Wang Haitao, project manager for Kaida’s new potato processing base in Beijing: “Tomra’s intelligent sorting solutions can effectively sort against criteria including size, color, whether there are any blemishes or damage, subtle defects and foreign materials in potatoes, French fries and potato chips. At the same time, Tomra technology ensures the waste of good product is kept to minimum. The company’s steam peeling technology boasts a four to 6% peeling loss, a number significantly lower than the average industry level, and is the optimal solution combining efficiency with low energy consumption. We didn’t make the decision overnight. We undertook in-depth research on various potato peeling technologies, including abrasive peeling and steam peeling, and compared the solutions offered by several suppliers”.
The project manager of Kaida has mentioned he visited several French fry and potato chip processing facilities, owned by global brands, which enabled them to see Tomra’s steam peelers, dry peel separators, whole potato sorters and French fry sorters in action.
“The results were convincing; with relatively low-quality potato input, Tomra’s peeler still managed to keep the peeling loss Kaida undertook on-site tests at the facilities of various steam peeling solution providers, and the results showed that Tomra’s technology generates between 2 and 4% material savings.
Jin Yali, general manager of Kaida’s Beijing plant, said: “Tomra’s local team was able to recommend solutions that are most suited to Kaida’s new processing lines. The team was also able to arrange tests to demonstrate the low peeling loss and high sorting efficiency. After installation, we were invited to attend a five day operation training course which enabled our operators to handle the daily operation and maintenance of the line at ease”.
In October 2016 the commissioning and installation of a complete Tomra peeling and sorting line was launched in Kaida’s Beijing potato processing line. The line consists of an Orbit steam peeler, a Titan whole potato sorter and a Genius French fry sorter. Since its launch, the line has been delivering a stable performance, at an average output of six tons per hour.
Liu Chang An, Kaida CEO and chairman further commented: “The consistently high performance provided by Tomra, combined with a higher yield than the industry average, helps Kaida to achieve substantial raw material savings. Compared with the 10-30% peeling loss with mechanical peeling, Kaida’s new facility in Beijing has a 6% loss, which will generate an additional 1,150 – 6,900 tons of raw material savings per year.
Kaida’s new facility in Inner Mongolia will be commissioned in Q2 2017, and will also comprise of an Orbit steam peeler, a Titan whole-potato sorter and a Genius French fry sorter.
