GRAAFF FRUIT

Third-generation family business Graaff Fruit is known for its top quality standards and produces some of the best deciduous fruit, including peaches, nectarines, apricots, plums, apples and pears, in South Africa.

Handling more than 21 000 tons of fruit and 150-plus cultivars, this Ceres-based organisation implemented the integrated ViTrax information system during the 2003/2004 production season to streamline operations. Today, the company uses seven ViTrax modules.
• Vitrax Pallet Tracking for following stock, sending electronic stock to the exporters and RF scanners for pre-registering pallets to ensure stock accuracy
• Vitrax Bin Tracking to track bins received from growers and orchards and monitoring correct bin tipping
• Printing cumulative packing reports to send to growers and using pivot tables to monitor the pallet and bin stock
• Carton Scanning to monitor packhouse productivity and calculate piece work for the workers
• QC to monitor pack house fruit quality
• Qlikview to report on packer productivity, as well as production reports
• ViTrax Money to invoice storage and pallet handling

Pack house manager MR du Toit explained that the system enabled Graaff Fruit to manage its key business units within one accurate and easy-to-use operating system. All vital information is thus available at the press of a few buttons.

The company has benefited enormously from the ViTrax reporting abilities. “It allows us to share ready-to-use information on fruit quality and stock levels with our growers and marketers,” he continued. “In the ViTrax environment, it’s easy to manage produce stock levels at different production levels and packaging materials on hand. We also utilise the system to determine plant and individual packer productivity. Finally, the traceability feature is truly crucial to the fruit packing industry.”

Du Toit said the Farsoft team was always accessible and helped readily when needed.