Organic Growth
By ANDREW JOSEPH, FEATURES EDITOR
Automation Bercy FoodsA healthy mix of organic products and sustainable packaging keeps Montreal produce company in the green
According to Orsini, being able to offer clients an organic alternative to the conventionally-farmed fruits and veggies gives Bercy an important competitive advantage and point-of-differentiation in a fiercely competitive industry, despite the considerable extra effort required in sourcing the product from farmers in places like Mexico, Guatemala, Morocco and the U.S. state of Florida.
“Dealing with organics can be quite difficult,” says Orsini, citing the company’s extensive product portfolio comprising products such as grape and cherry tomatoes, snow peas and sugar snap peas, avocados, all types of citrus, and stone fruits such as peaches, plums, cherries, etc.
“While the growing consumer demand for the organics is a good thing, the sourcing of a full line of organically-grown produce is a considerable challenge—especially now that we are promoting more and more Fair Trade-sourced products, utilizing a market-based approach to help producers in developing countries obtain better trading conditions and to promote more sustainable farming practices.
“Organic, pesticide-free and chemical-free products are what we insist on,” says Orsini. “Also, because we know that taste plays a huge role at the end of the day, we have purposely opted to source only the closer-to-maturity harvests—thus ensuring that our organic fruits and veggies get a chance to gain more body and taste.”
The current Bercy Foods facility already houses a total of 12 packaging lines—comprising equipment supplied by PFM Packaging Machinery Corp., SACMI USA Ltd. and some custom-made machinery—to turn out the company’s own Buenisima and Bio Buenisima produce brands, as well as private-label offerings such as Delicioso and Bio Delicioso for the Metro stores and Think Bio for Sobeys.
“We also package veggie snack trays with health-conscious dips on a side, as well as many consumer-ready packages of all types of fruits and vegetables,” Orsini points out, adding that Bercy guarantees its customers delivery of all its packaged and unpackaged products within 12 hours of order placement.
While Orsini says the company is currently looking to add another dedicated packaging line for fruit processing applications, he stresses that Bercy has made a concerted effort to ensure that all of its existing lines keep their environmental footprint as low as possible by using as many sustainable packaging products and systems as they can from start to finish.
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