Supply chain monitoring in horticulture

Narrator: Piñata Farms is a fourth-generation, family-owned producer of pineapples, mangoes, and berries based in Queensland.

Piñata Farms owns the marketing rights to the Honey Gold mango variety, which accounts for approximately 14% of Australian mango production.

Honey Gold mangoes are harvested from all major mango-producing districts in Australia. Each district experiences variable production conditions and distances to the market, which result in variable fruit quality and shelf life across harvests and districts.

Piñata Farms, in collaboration with the Queensland Department of Primary Industries (DPI) and the Northern Territory Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, has participated in the Serviced Supply Chains II project. The project aims to improve the delivery and consistency of Honey Gold mango quality.

This video highlights the key learnings and impacts of the project.

Gavin Scurr (Piñata Farms): What motivated us to be part of yet another project with the department is the practical outcomes we’ve had from prior collaborations. Between us, we’ve developed solutions to address practical supply chain problems we face.

Narrator: Dale Williams is the principal of Euri Gold Farms near Bowen, Queensland. He grows Honey Gold mangoes under licence to Piñata Farms. DPI monitored several of his consignments, finding good quality and excellent shelf life.

Dale Williams (Euri Gold Farms): In the last couple of years, we’ve been using Escavox loggers. With this, we’ve noticed that temperatures in the trucks are often higher than we expect. Recently, there were some cases where the temperatures were higher than they should’ve been.

We’ve also been able to identify mishandling. For example, last year, some of our fruit was left outside and reached over 30°C. This was actually for an export market. With temperature loggers, we’re now able to track where the fruit is and what has happened to it. This puts more responsibility on practices further down the supply chain.

In cases where something has gone wrong—if fruit has been mishandled or gets overheated—we can warn our customers to anticipate that the fruit will be in a more advanced state and will need to be sold more quickly.

Narrator: Real-time temperature loggers were placed in 48 consignments from the Northern Territory and Queensland over 3 seasons. This helped identify key supply chain risks and improve the shelf life prediction model.

Gavin Scurr (Piñata Farms): What the monitoring highlighted were the areas in which we could improve. We were often disappointed when we’d see our fruit at retail, and it wasn’t as good as we expected it to be.

The temperature monitoring highlighted how critical it is to get the fruit cold before loading it onto the truck. We also GPS-tracked these loads so we could know where they were at any given time.

Narrator: Once the monitored consignments reached the Melbourne market, Rudge Produce Systems intercepted and assessed them for fruit quality, shelf life, and key defects. Each grower received a detailed report summarising the consignment's shelf life, causes of deterioration, and a temperature graph.

In the 2023/2024 season, between 30% and 60% of Honey Gold mango consignments were transported at temperatures above recommended levels. This reduced shelf life and resulted in inconsistent quality.
Improvements in temperature management practices have led to fruits arriving in markets with less quality deterioration and longer-lasting shelf life.

Australia's current marketing and logistics systems prioritise timely delivery through a first-in, first-out retail model, but this approach doesn’t always ensure consistent fruit quality or shelf life.

To address seasonal and regional variations, Piñata Farms is pursuing a more flexible, responsive approach to ensure consistent market quality. Using data from monitored consignments and trials conducted over 3 seasons, the team developed shelf-life prediction models to support a first-expired, first-out system that prioritises consistent fruit quality.

Preliminary trials showed the algorithms to be remarkably accurate in predicting mango shelf life under commercial conditions, with a margin of error as small as +/- 2 to 4 days.

Gavin Scurr (Piñata Farms): The appearance and ripeness of mangoes are critical to sales. Temperature and time monitoring help us understand the impact of temperature abuse, where fruit is exposed to warmer temperatures than ideal.

Using this data, we developed algorithms that predict a fruit's actual shelf life. For example, if some fruit has experienced warmer temperature handling, the algorithm will flag it as having a shortened shelf life.

By using a digital dashboard, we can prioritise which consignments need to be sold first. It’s an incredibly practical tool that helps us minimise waste and improve inventory management.

Narrator: Simulation trials demonstrated that shelf-life extension technologies, like controlled atmosphere storage, could extend late-season mango marketing by 2 to 4 weeks and open access to more distant markets.

Gavin Scurr (Piñata Farms): This past season, we conducted some trials with controlled atmosphere storage, and the initial results are very promising. It seems we can extend shelf life by at least 2 weeks—and possibly up to 4 weeks.

For us, as the owners of the Honey Gold variety, this is critical because it extends our season. During the season, we sell around 100,000 trays of Honey Gold mangoes per week. If we extend the season by even 2 weeks, that’s an extra 200,000 trays.

Furthermore, towards the end of the season, the fruit supply runs out, and the price increases. The financial benefits of reflecting this research into commercial practice could be significant and exciting. And this concept isn’t limited to mangoes. It can be used across all types of fruits and vegetables—what matters is working out the right algorithm for each product.

Narrator: Key impacts of the Serviced Supply Chains II project include:

• the value of real-time loggers in consignments to identify issues
• the benefit of independent assessors in domestic and export markets for feedback on fruit quality
• the ability to accurately predict remaining shelf life and use this data to plan better marketing strategies
• Piñata Farms, its suppliers, retailers, and customers all benefit from the ability to deliver consistent, high-quality produce.