The German potato and onion cooperative Groka is located east of Hannover, Lower Saxony. More than half of the country's onions are grown in that area, and Groka's share of the German onion market is as much as 20-25%. In the video report below, director Volker Peters explains the entire process, including the new Elisam sorting line and Dutch company Jongejans Luchttechniek's extraction system.
Groka packs about 20% (6,000 to 8,000 tons) of those onions, but most are sent to packers throughout Germany, from Munich to Hamburg. Onions are packed from 500 grams to 2.5 kg, and potatoes from 5 kg to 25 kg. Groka has a 25,000-ton capacity central storage facility where it stores its members' harvests.
In recent years, the cooperative invested in an entirely new optical sorting line to save labor and continue providing its customers with the desired quality. For that purpose, they visited several projects in the Netherlands and Switzerland. In 2021, for example, they visited Top The Onion Group. This Dutch company uses the same combination of optical sorting technology with Jongejans Luchttechniek's extraction system.
Extraction is vital to an optical sorting line's effectiveness. The sorter must be placed in an almost clinical environment to work optimally, and it is essential to extract onion skins and dust early on. Windshifting technology means the onions enter the process on the grader as cleanly as possible. To protect the high-tech camera technology and get the clearest possible images, overpressure is used on the camera boxes.
Groka also invested in an extraction system for the packaging lines, thus increasing the capacity of the weighing/packaging machines. That makes for a visibly cleaner, dust-free working environment, too. Extraction occurs at 31 points during optical sorting and a further 29 in the packaging department. "Jongejans offers us total solutions for that. We've been using these systems to our complete satisfaction for more than 30 years," says Volker.
In the United States and Europe, some 40 large onion processors happily use Jongejans' extraction solutions with their sorting lines every day. Groka is the first German processor to do so. "The beauty of our solutions is that they please everyone who works with them. Good extraction ensures improved machine operation, less dust in the room, and cleaner products," concludes Jongejans' Jesse Vonk.
For more information:Volker PetersGrokaTel: +49 517 78 650Email: [email protected]Website: www.groka-dollbergen.de/
Jesse Vonk
Jongejans Luchttechniek
Tel: +31 (0) 223 660 666
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.jongejansluchttechniek.nl/