Tong Engineering has reported a noticeable increase in demand for automated vegetable handling systems, including advanced optical sorting facilities, within its latest on-farm and packhouse equipment for 2023.
“Minimising the reliance on the workforce continues to be one of the main drivers for equipment upgrades with vegetable growers and producers looking to replace older handling systems which are less efficient in terms of both labour and running costs,” says Charlie Rich, Sales Director at Tong Engineering. “Sourcing reliable labour remains a challenge and with energy costs at an all-time high, the latest handling equipment is really offering significant savings in both of these ongoing operating costs.”
Amongst its range of advanced handling equipment, Tong highlights some of the most popular machines that are minimising labour requirements and maximising throughput on farm.
Alongside the company’s renowned Caretaker machine, Tong’s FieldLoad PRO has been a best-selling post-harvest machine and has proved a game-changer in effectively cleaning and loading crop in the field, straight from the harvester. This results in a much more streamlined post-harvest handling process, requiring fewer operators and no unnecessary carting of soil as soil and debris is left in the field. The FieldLoad PRO with Tong’s EasyClean separator is a particularly popular specification for unrivalled cleaning in all conditions.
Tong’s EasyFill box filler remains an firm on-farm favourite for automatic and gentle box filling with the latest MonstaFill box filler offering even higher capacity box filling, with reduced forklift movements for a continuous box filling process. In the packhouse, the next generation washing and polishing equipment from Tong also focuses on maximum efficiency and minimal maintenance for reliable performance, and Tong is working with best in class manufacturers to supply to complete and fully-integrated vegetable handling solution.