Ancillary services for producing and trading produce are numerous and often highly specialized. Amongst these, the recycling of collapsible plastic packaging and pallets is essential for the entire fruit and vegetable supply chain.
Romina Roccasalvo
Romina Roccasalvo, administrator of NBT, a service company well known to professionals, explains how "fruit and vegetables are shipped using folding boxes. There are different sizes, from different manufacturers, and each large retailer has its preferred packaging."
"These boxes are therefore essential for meeting the internal logistics needs of companies," says Roccasalvo, "as well as for external logistics. The management of this packaging is fundamental to the proper functioning of the entire fruit and vegetable supply chain. This is also the case considering the different companies that produce them and the penalties that are imposed on the user in the event of missing or broken crates.”
"To solve this common problem between producers and their crate suppliers, Next to Business, a service company that takes care of the entire fruit and vegetable supply chain, has developed an inventory service that is carried out directly on the farms of agricultural producers," explains the manager. “We create a precise management of the movement of crates. This way we eliminate costs due to breakage, loss or slow handling. There are millions of crates scattered around farms, worth hundreds of thousands of euros per Italian province, waiting to be recovered and reintroduced."
The Next to Business company thus becomes, in addition to the bureaucratic management, the link between the agricultural producer and the box manufacturer. The service company picks up the crates from the distribution centers and delivers them to the agricultural producer or vice versa. The crates are then washed at the distribution centers and returned to circulation for a new journey from the countryside to the supermarket shelves, where they are on sale to the public. NTB also offers the possibility of storing the packaging in its warehouses and then returning it to the agricultural producers when they need it. This avoids the need to occupy space on the farm, while the delivery on request is carried out very quickly. Depending on the customer's needs, reporting on the movement of boxes can be done on a monthly or annual basis. Thanks to this service, all the movements of crates can be constantly monitored for the leading Italian fruit and vegetable producers. This is also true for other supply chain participants.
For more information:
Romina Roccasalvo
NTB - Next To Business
C.da Palazzelle-Lanzagallo
97014 Ispica (RG)
+39 0932 090179
+39 3394604122