Packaging success on the other side of the world

Located four weeks (by sea) from its European markets, Zespri exports eighty-five million trays of kiwifruit each year to fifty-five ports around the world. Pallets are double stacked in cool stores for up to six months then shipped in refrigerated charter vessels. Upon their arrival in some Asian markets, the packaging is exposed to very hot humid conditions, testing packaging to the limit.

Billerud Flute® is ideally suited to these challenging conditions. Slow-growing Scandinavian forests produce strong primary fibres that make our fluting the strongest in the world. The next phase is to simulate the real-life conditions of your packaging to optimise the design. It’s called True Performance and covers three key areas:

1. TIME – Performance during long journeys
2. CLIMATE – Varying climatic conditions (humidity, temperature, etc)
3. LOAD – Constant loads delivered over long periods

A three-way partnership was established between three key stakeholders: BillerudKorsnäs, Zespri International and NZ-based Amcor Kiwi packaging. Material and design testing was carried out at the BillerudKorsnäs Box Lab.

Working in partnership
The Zespri/Amcor collaboration is not unique. BillerudKorsnäs works with over 1000 packaging partners in over 120 countries to find new smarter packaging solutions. Paper quality varies throughout the world and the primary fibre-based material from BillerudKorsnäs is ideally suited to international companies involved in long, demanding supply chains.