For many growers producing higher volume, but maintaining quality and uniform bunches is a challenge for many growers and especially leading up to Valentine's Day. For the Ecuadorian rose grower Naranjo Group it was too and last year, they decided to set up and install the first Latin American rose grower - the RoseMatic 2.0 of Bercomex. And it runs at full speed at the moment. "For Valentine's Day, 160,000 roses will be sorted and bunched", says Carlos Jauregui of Columbec, Ecuadorian partner of Bercomex.

Just like many other Ecuadorian growers, Valentine's Day is one of their most important days, together with Mother's Day and All Saints. During these days larger quantities of roses are required but the quality of the Ecuadorian rose should not suffer. For this reason, Naranjo Group decided to install the new rose grading machine, the RoseMatic 2.0 of Bercomex.

"Last year, Columbec, Bercomex and Narjanco group started to work together intensively to improve the process from farm to harvest and post harvest. We installed the RoseMatic 2.0 which is capable of processing all varieties that are produced by Naranjo Group, which are more than 80. These are grown on three farms that are located from 2,700 meters to over 3,000 meters above sea-level", says Jauregui.

The RoseMatic 2.0 sorts roses according to the length of the stem, diameter of the stem, bud height and opening of the bud and can produce 8,000 stems an hour, with a maximum of 9,000 an hour. According to Jauregui, a major advantage of the machine is the combination of high productivity and creating uniform bunches. "Manually, it is possible to achieve uniform bunches with high quality roses, but with this machine this farm may certify it and can increase the production up to 35 percent", says Jauregui. "On top of that, it saves the grading criteria per type of rose, so growers can always switch quickly."

http://www.floraldaily.com/article/13750/Ecuador-Naranjo-Group-gears-up-for-Valentines-Day-with-new-grading-machine