More than 30 journalists worldwide and an international crowd of industry professionals attended TOMRA Food’s press event at Fruit Logistica Berlin, one of the leading global trade fairs for the fresh fruit and vegetable business.
The three-day annual event attracts almost 80,000 visitors from more than 130 countries.
TOMRA’s president and CEO Stefan Ranstrand chose this occasion to give a speech on TOMRA Food’s exhibition stand about the company’s unique offering, values, and future aspirations. At the heart of his talk was the message that TOMRA can contribute to global sustainability by helping to reduce food waste, at the same time as enhancing the technical and economic performance of food producers.
Biggest ambition to cut food waste
Ranstrand said: “One of our big aspirations for the future is to help our customers even more to reduce food waste and improve yields.
“We are in a world with an ever-growing population, expected to increase up to ten billion people by 2050, and will have to produce 70% more food than we do today. Today we waste between 35% and 50% of all the food we currently produce, and that’s something we must address. We would like to see our technologies help bring much more food to the table.”
Ranstrand identified TOMRA’s two other aspirations as “being a long-term, trusted business partner” for our customers and “continuing to invest in game-changing technology.”
Talking further about customer relationships, Ranstrand cited how fruit picking and sorting seasons can be very short, demanding a huge amount of work to be accomplished quickly without unplanned downtime. This is why he believes the key to TOMRA’s success is working closely with customers as partners.
He added: “The most important thing is to understand the customer and give them full value, not only in sorting accuracy, but also to make sure the machine runs all the time and always delivers top performance.”
On the subject of investing in technology, Ranstrand commented that digitalisation will be of utmost importance.
He said: “With inspection technologies, we can look at food on the outside and the inside, and the question is how we use that data to benefit food producers and consumers.”
Data gathered during automated food inspecting and sorting is likely to be used in the future to improve farming efficiencies and the quality of products reaching consumers. Data will also give consumers the information they increasingly desire. Knowing details such as the food’s provenance, sugar composition, and the supplier’s sustainability credentials, will all help consumers make informed choices.
Technical leadership, food trust, and digital transformation
TOMRA’s exhibition stand at Fruit Logistica Berlin highlighted TOMRA Food’s technical leadership, food trust, and digital transformation pillars. Through technical leadership, TOMRA enables producers of products such as fruit and vegetables to improve accuracy, efficiency and yields.
To help brands establish food trust and safeguard their reputations, TOMRA enables food producers to ensure high standards in food quality, hygiene, and traceability. And through digital transformation, data analytics are optimising machine efficiency, reducing operational costs, and assisting food traceability.
Ranstrand explained: “By pioneering the design and manufacturing of sorters and graders of many different types and sizes, TOMRA offers technical solutions not found elsewhere. Our ability to combine different sorting technologies such as colour cameras, near infra-red (NIR), spectroscopy and laser-detection make a difference.”
The result of this unrivalled technical sophistication is that produce is accurately graded and safety-assured at the same time as reducing waste.
Innovating from a position of strength
TOMRA Food is one of the biggest providers of sorting and grading solutions to the food sector, with more than 8,000 units running in 80 countries.
The company has grown at a rate of 14% per year in the last five years, with acquisitions in the food sector further increasing the company’s international reach and financial strength. In the ten years since Ranstrand joined the company, he has led TOMRA on a transformational journey, turning a collection of entities into one strong, unified brand and making the group the world-leader in reverse vending technology and sensor-based sorting solutions for the food, recycling and mining industries.
In this year’s prestigious European CEO Awards, whose winners were announced last month, Mr. Ranstrand was named “Best CEO in the Sustainable Resource Management Industry”.
For further information about TOMRA, please see www.tomra.com.
