Floriculture Magazine spoke to one of the leading manufacturers of cartons and SFK, who emphasized, “Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, and skillful execution.”
For export, flowers must be packed. Kindly discuss the importance of quality cartons in the packaging of flowers.
The quality of a carton is important as it determines the state in which the produce will reach the market. A good quality box should be able to withstand the harsh conditions in the supply (cool) chain. The primary purpose of a carton is to protect, preserve, and ship the produce to the market in top quality sustainably—in as near perfect condition as possible—allowing for good returns.
It is pointless to put so much effort into getting quality produce from the farm only for it to arrive in bad shape in the target market due to poor quality packaging—fetching low returns and being subject to claims, etc.
For a layman, a carton is a carton; briefly discuss factors to consider when choosing the best carton for flowers.
A box is a box; however, you could have two boxes constructed of the same quality material (paper from the same sources), but the resulting box could be very different in terms of its ability to perform in the hostile conditions that it is subjected to.
A good-quality carton depends on the quality of paper used and the integrity of the process and processing equipment.
Influencing factors
- Type of flowers grown and sensitivity
- Pack rates
- Cost
- Logistics—mode of transport
- pallets in use in the supply chain.
- Volume to cost ratio considerations-
- Weight of box
- Target Market and also the preference in the growing region
- The nature of the growers’ cool chain and handling
- Choice of supplier – a supplier who sustains consistent quality of boxes batch-to-batch, and reliability of supplies.
Flowers are of different sizes, varieties, and types, each with its unique characteristics. Do you use the same cartons for the different stem sizes, head sizes, varieties, and types, e.g. roses, lisianthus, etc.?
Cartons come in different sizes and styles. This largely depends on grower preferences, but there are special rules for special flowers. For example, roses will be packed in either standard, Zim Box, Special Zim, Jumbo box whereas Lisianthus will be packed in an upright whose height will depend on the stem size. Chrysanthemums for this region are packed in smaller-sized boxes.
What is the universal carton size(s)? If not classified, you can give the different carton sizes available.
In this region, Eastern Africa, the most common flower boxes are the Standard flower box whose size is 978 x 299 x 196mm and Zim Box whose size is 980 x 438 x 199mm. These are two piece- products that is bottom and top (that are Full Depth Telescopic).
There are other variants in the FDT boxes, such as the Special Zim whose size is 982 x 375 x 209mm, Jumbo box which can take various sizes depending on the grower.
In addition to this, we have the coffin (Popular in Israel but also used here by a few), an R.S.C style, box whose size is 1000 x 512 x 388mm and uses heavy-duty paper ideal for heavy haulage—there’s a variant to this that uses a slightly lower grammage paper. We also have some other small boxes, like for chrysanthemums, and one size is 530 x 345 x 100mm.
How many stems or bouquets should be packed in a carton?
This is dependent on various factors. These are the sizes of stems, heads, variety, grower, overseas customer requirements, type of box, etc. The packing should be such that there’s no bulging or overpacking so as to facilitate good stack formation and ease of handling.
Kindly discuss the handling of the product during packaging.
It is important to understand that boxes are paper products, and although paper for making boxes is specialized, prolonged contact with moisture/water contributes to deterioration in strength. This calls for extra care in handling.
To ensure flowers arrive at their destination in top quality, handling of the boxes throughout the cool chain is important. It largely depends on how the cooling/pre-cooling process of the grower is structured—the longer the box is subjected to the cool chain, the faster it deteriorates; how the boxes are stacked in the cold rooms; during transportation; the process of handling during loading, unloading, and building of pallets, the storage of boxes. Have the Packers been trained on good handling practices? Do the packers know how to identify faulty boxes and avoid using them? These are all important.
What advice do you give to enable the product to maintain its quality during transport, both by road and air?
Adhere to good handling, stacking, and packing on trucks utilizing the edge of the boxes where the strength of the box is. At the freight handlers, it is important to adhere to good practice and also simple mechanization to enable easy movement of large pallets without having to use a lot of force on boxes. The use of refrigerated trucks should be well-structured.
What problems, if any, are you having with growers in handling your products, which they turn to blame on you?
When there are issues of boxes collapsing, the box maker gets all the criticism. What the growers need to understand is that things could go wrong anywhere in the chain. It could be as a result of;
- Poor quality box—supplier issue
- The structure of the growers pre-cooling process
- Growers’ packing process and the environment in which it is done.
- Structure of the road transportation and packing in the refrigerated lorry
- Handling and palleting at the freighters
- Conditions under which the produce was being handled during loading, unloading, etc.
Are there any specific materials that should be used to manufacture flower cartons for your customers?
The ideal situation would be to have wet-strength paper and semi-chemical fluting paper as the components to manufacture flower boxes. These would allow for the use of lighter boxes. However, these are expensive, and normal Kraft paper and waste-based fluting are the norm. The kraft paper/fluting has to meet certain stringent strength and water absorption criteria, without which there is likely hood of issues during use. There are other methods/processes available to impart water-resistant properties to paper and starch which is used as an adhesive. These are through the use of water-resistant coatings on paper and water-resistant resins in glue formulation.
What are the qualities of a good carton supplier?
Consistent quality products batch-to-batch, excellent customer service that includes training sessions with the Packhouse team on box handling and reliability in supplies.
Kindly give your final comments.
Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, and skillful execution. The grower, packaging supplier, and freighter should work closely together to ensure that the produce reaches the market in the best possible quality.
A number of suppliers in Kenya already do this by engaging growers packhouse teams on box handling and have studied different cool chains for different growers and understand which of these work well considering the type of boxes made in this market.