Janssen PMP's team took a tour of sevaral citrus pack houses in Spain

In order to get to know their customers’ customers better, some of Janssen PMP’s team members took a tour of several citrus pack houses in Valencia, Spain. The trip stopped at five very different pack houses with different sizes and levels of quality control, as well as different product experiences.The fruit arriving in this pack houses is mollycoddled to say the least. At arrival, the fruit is showered, dried off, rinsed, bathed, dried again, moisturized, dried again and somewhere in between gets a few days of rest in a nice hot room. However, the fruit is also harshly judged on looks, size and weight and, if not perfect, thrown in a bin with the rest of the ‘not so perfect’ citrus. Although the packers all had their specific comments and issues, two comments were recurring. On the one hand, they all rely heavily on Imazalil as the basis of any treatment protocol. On the other hand, all packers recognized the benefits of Philabuster and thought of it as a great product. However, they either use it on a very limited scale or not at all. Where packers used to be concerned about using a product that gives maximal protection to the fruit, their main concerns now are residue-related, as well as related to decontamination and disposal of the wastewater. The latter has to do with environmental issues becoming more important for all governments, whereas the residue issues don’t have anything to do with official regulations, but are completely based on demands from the supermarket chains. The packers finally gave them an education on what Janssen PMP should be inventing and/or be bringing into the market.