Almond storage solution runs rings around competition

A smart aeration system coupled with a ring storage solution promises to both cut costs and reduce risks for Australia’s almond growers.
Harveston Group says its goal is to provide a cost-effective storage solution that improves the process of taking an almond crop from the orchard to the processor, and importantly minimises post-harvest losses.
The key is reducing weather exposure by no longer having to dry almonds on the ground after harvest, which gives farmers control they have never had access to before.
After harvest the fruit can be moved to the specially designed ring storage system where it will dry evenly, preventing mould and insect attacks and take weather risks out of the equation, with the overall benefit of consistently better quality fruit.
Other advantages include the need for less labour and increased effectiveness of fumigation, which all deliver cost savings.
Harveston’s newly developed storage ring system consists of a self-supporting steel ring, an inbuilt aeration system, a sealed tarping system and a tarp vent. 
An important development is the aeration controller that uses a specific algorithm to interpret the storage environment conditions and ambient environmental conditions to determine the required volume and timing of the airflow. 
The stored product stack is enclosed in a ventilated tarping system that protects the product from the elements and provides a sealable enclosure for product fumigation. 
Harveston’s IP is in the configuration of the ring assembly specifically for this purpose, the air distribution system, the fan control system and the tarp vent. Each of these elements is patent pending. 
Three of the storage rings are being installed at a Victorian Smart Farm at Irymple at the end of March. 
The rings are constructed from Australian-made steel and Australian-made recyclable plastics and are expected to last on-farm for a minimum of five years.
The kits are prepared at Albury on the NSW-Victorian Border, from local components, and freighted to farms across the country, where the structures are easily assembled with components, tools and instructions all provided.
Harveston’s technology is beneficial to almond farms using conventional harvest techniques and is ideally placed to optimise the world-first almond harvest process called “green harvest”.
Research by the University of South Australia’s Agricultural Machine Design Centre and Professor John Fielke have developed a new process called “green harvest”, which takes almonds directly from the trees to the harvester and then on to storage. 
This replaces the conventional “grey harvest” process which involves shaking partially dry fruit from the tree to the ground where it completes the next stage of drying - if the weather Gods so wish - before being transferred to bunkers.
Green harvest coupled with Harveston’s ring storage delivers the new gold standard in almond harvest and storage.
For more information about Harveston’s almond storage solutions email [email protected].