Turkish hazelnut exporter Olam Progida continues investment in Tomra ranges
Turkish hazelnut exporter Olam Progıda has confirmed ongoing investment with sorting equipment supplier Tomra, as it continues to increase efficiency improvements within the business.
The company operates four factory sites – three in Turkey — in Giresun, Ordu and Sakarya — and a further one in Georgia, with many of its products destined for the snacks and confectionery market, including chocolate spreads.
As the business explained, it has established a long-term supply relationship with Tomra’s ranges, most recently investing in one of the firm’s Nimbus BSI+ machines. In determining its requirements, the company said it had placed a strong emphasis on food safety standards and evaluation of products.
Olam Progida is part of the Olam Group, the international agri-business founded in 1989 which works from seed to shelf by supplying food and industrial raw materials to more than 22,000 customers worldwide. It is present in 66 countries in 18 different platforms including cocoa, coffee, dried nuts, hazelnut, sesame, spices, rice and sugar, and has built leadership positions in most.
In addition to natural high-quality hazelnuts, Olam Progıda offers added value products such as blanched, roasted and diced hazelnut kernels and hazelnut paste.
Production and technical services manager Aykut Gören explained: “Turkey supplies 70 percent of the annual hazelnut production of the world. Turkey has been delivering high-quality hazelnuts to the world markets for centuries. The Turkish hazelnut is also very suitable for industrial use, but of course, processing conditions are at least as important as production conditions. At Olam Progıda, we process hazelnuts in our modern integrated facilities equipped with cutting-edge technology. The performance of TOMRA sorting machines in our production line contributes greatly to our productivity.”
Olam Progıda exports more than 32 thousand tons of processed hazelnut every year primarily to Germany, Italy, France, Austria and Switzerland. Stating that they produce enough hazelnuts to make 673 million jars of chocolate hazelnut spread every year, Gören continued: “We are stepping out of traditional methods in the hazelnut industry. We are using cutting-edge technology and, in this regard, we are benefiting in many ways from the advantages provided by Tomra sorting machines,” added that its operating costs had been reduced since introducing the equipment.
Gören added: “We supply hazelnuts to the biggest brands of the world and naturally, since our customers’ expectations are so high, our standards carry a lot of weight. Products coming from the field first head to our cracking facilities. Before and after the cracking operation, there is considerable amount of foreign materials in the product.
“Our first step in food safety is sorting these unwanted materials with Tomra equipment. Since it enables us to conduct our sorting operation 24 hours-a-day with the same performance, our efficiency increases considerably.”
The BSI+ module uses both near infrared and visible spectrum wavelengths to detect product defects for a more detailed classification capability. The BSI+ module detects product defects both visible and invisible to the human eye using near infrared spectrum. This technology makes the Nimbus BSI+ the market leader in detecting defects in hazelnuts, peanuts, almonds and all other nuts including bug bites, rot, colour defects and musty pieces.