Smurfit Kappa shows in Fruit Logistica 2019 its most innovative and sustainable solutions
Smurfit Kappa, leader in packaging of paper and corrugated cardboard, is present with a large stand of 135 m2 in Fruit Logistica, the leading trade fair for the fruit and vegetable sector, which takes place at the Berlin fairgrounds from February 6 to 8.
There he exposes his great variety of solutions, designed with the purpose of contributing to that farmers and retailers improve his figures of business thanks to the increase of sales, the reduction of costs and the diminution of risks. This triple contribution of value adds that the company’s solutions open for them the possibility of reducing the ecological footprint of their processes, without affecting their productivity.
One of Smurfit Kappa’s innovations that synthesizes all of the above is AgroPaper®, a 100% biodegradable and environmentally friendly paper-based material, designed to replace the plastic used when agricultural mulching is carried out, a process that avoids growth of weeds, maintains an optimal temperature and improves its fertility. Polyethylene is difficult and expensive to eliminate and, in many cases, leaves small fragments that damage the environment and that can be ingested by the fauna of the environment, negative effects that disappear completely using the new AgroPaper®, which at the end of the crop It biodegrades and integrates safely and innocuously, becoming organic matter for the soil.
The development of AgroPaper® is the result of the research carried out by specialists in the paper manufacture of Smurfit Kappa Nervión and Sangüesa in collaboration with INTIA (Navarra Institute of Agri-Food Technologies and Infrastructures), who have managed to discover how to use pine fibers from local forests exploited sustainably as a base material to form this revolutionary paper solution.
To its value to reduce the carbon footprint in the application of agricultural mulch, it is added that, in several tests carried out, the solution can increase crop yields. In this regard, Laurent Sellier, Operations Director of Smurfit Kappa Europe says that “in this edition of Fruit Logistica the company shows how, through our Better Planet Packaging initiative, we respond to the challenge that currently faces the environment and society in its whole through the development of paper and packaging solutions that have a positive impact on the planet and solve the real needs of our customers. ”
With regard to corrugated cardboard packaging solutions, attendees at Fruit Logistica 2019 that approach the Smurfit Kappa stand at the fair can discover innovations such as the Smurf box for premium fruit of smaller size, fully customizable and designed to facilitate the transport, storage and exhibition in the linear of up to 8 trays of 1 to 3 kg. of product; the new Goliath box, which thanks to its design eliminates an endemic problem in the watermelon sector by preventing the deformation of the box by the internal pressure of the fruit, and therefore improves the stacking, also enhancing the brand image at the point of sale ; finally, at the fair, the company also exhibits the benefits of the acclaimed Box8, a solution for bulk products that can also be used in the assembly machine.
