Packers improve, impress with pears

摘要

If only pears were round. Then, the technological packing line developments crucial to keeping pears competitive in the global produce trade might already be here. "Cherries and apples have benefited from technological improvements a lot over the pastfive years," said Bob Gix, a pear grower from Wenatchee, Washington. "Pears have not to the same degree, and part of it has been because of the shape of the fruit." The elongated contour of pears prevents them from rolling smoothly over machinery that enables the high-tech electronic sorting, visioning and robotics tools that have rapidly changed the packing infrastructure of cherries and apples.