Harris Fresh opens California garlic packing shed

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Harris Fresh opens California garlic packing shed
By Don Schrack
(Sept. 3, 3:13 p.m.) COALINGA, Calif.  Eighteen months ago, a newgarlic packing shed was a low priority at Harris Fresh Inc. Thefocus for general manager Doug Stanley was planning a new onionpacking shed, he said.

Everything changed May 11, 2007, when a welders torch touched offa fire. Within minutes, the companys aging garlic packing shed wasashes.

A 30,000-square-foot garlic packing shed has risen from thoseashes. Two-thirds of the facility contains the packing line andstorage areas. Those 20,000 square feet are temperature controlled,Stanley said.

This facility demonstrates Harris Fresh is committed to theCalifornia deal, Stanley said. Were definitely going to bearound.

The future of the domestic garlic industry has been in question inrecent years because of skyrocketing imports from China.

Before importers began sourcing from China, there were as many as20 major U.S. garlic grower-shippers, Stanley said. Now there areabout a half dozen.

The new garlic shed, which Stanley said is an organic-certifiedhandler, features a five-lane sizer and packing line manufacturedand installed by MAF Industries Inc., Traver. It is themanufacturers first garlic line in the U.S. said Dennis Bilton,director of sales for MAF Industries.

A key advantage was proximity, Stanley said. The MAF IndustriesU.S. headquarters is within an hours drive of Harris Fresh inCoalinga.

Stanley said Jose Solorio, garlic shed operations manager forHarris Fresh, worked closely with David Mills, California salesmanager for MAF Industries, in designing a packing line that metthe needs of the grower-shipper-packer.

Its very gentle equipment, Stanley said. We suffer less than 1%loss from mechanical damage.

Food safety is another feature of the line.

All metal parts of the packing line that come into contact withthe garlic are made of stainless steel, Bilton said.

The packing line is computer controlled. From a small office abovethe packing line, a monitor reveals the entire operation down tothe smallest detail, Stanley said. The computer replaces a seriesof mechanical switches that controlled the former packing line, hesaid.

I can reprogram the line with the click of a mouse, Stanley said.With the old system, just changing sizes required a mechanic, ahelper and a half hour of packing line down time.

The emphasis on food safety for Harris Fresh starts in the field.All of the garlic packed in the new shed, Stanley said, is grown byanother division of the company, Harris Farms, which is overseen bySteve Ozuna, general manager.

The product goes into bins that hold up to 2,000 pounds of garlic.They are stored and protected from the elements in a covered polebarn adjacent to the packing shed. Each bin, Stanley said, islabeled with information on the date harvested and the location ofthe field.

We have instant traceability, he said.

The packing shed is not yet operating at 100% capacity, but that isby design, Stanley said. The goal is to learn what the equipmentcan do and, if necessary, to make alterations that maximize thesheds productivity, he said.

Company control is not limited to growing and packing. Harris Freshmarkets all the garlic packed under the Harris Fresh label, Stanleysaid. Packing continues through the end of September, he said.

We expect to be sold out by the end of the year, Stanley said.

About 70% of the packout is in 30-pound cartons, he said. HarrisFresh also packs 10-pound cartons and custom packs 5-pound tubes.Ten-kilogram cartons are packed for export, Stanley said.

More information about the product and packing options may be foundat the companys Web site, www.harrisfresh.com.

The next project on Stanleys drawing board, he said, is an8,000-square-foot cold-storage facility. Once thats completed, theonion packing shed will return to the front burner.
E-mail Don Schrack