By trying something new with Karsten Group’s Green Valley Nuts, FarSoft managed to change ViTrax QC radically after all these years. ‘Nuts just happen to be the first commodity to use the dynamic control-based QC,’ said FarSoft’s Mariska Cubitt. ‘The possibilities are now endless.’

Green Valley Nuts kicked off with the ViTrax QC module in January 2023. But then FarSoft developer Ben Louw was roped in to develop some cool new features. He explained, ‘First we had to determine how many pecan nut pieces could be obtained from one nut, then the weight of the nuts in the cold room, testing the chlorine content when the nuts are being washed, as well as the ratio between the shells and fleshy parts.’

According to Mariska, turnaround time in the packhouse is much faster as a result of QC’s customised functionality incorporating the results of these tests. ‘Next up for us is to apply the dynamic control-based QC to dates and grapes.’ She added that FarSoft was also busy building an equally customisable restriction module.

Situated east of the Orange river near Prieska, Green Valley Nuts has 635 ha of planted pecans. Of this, 25% is currently bearing fruit and all the trees will be full bearing in 2028. The organisation’s state-of-the-art pecan processing plant can process up to a 100 tons a month.