Frupak Processing Factory

The processing factory at Fruitpackers has been operating for over 30 years making a variety of fruit products for the Food Industry in New Zealand. Most are bulk manufacturing packs and the majority are apple based.

Origianally in joint Venture with the NZ Apple and Pear Marketing Board a Apple Piemix of 30% apple puree and 70% uncooked Diced apple was developed for the domestic baking trade. This product has remained basically the same for 30 years and is made exclusively from Granny Smith apples grown specifically for the factory by Fruitpackers Co-operative members.The apples do not go through the packhouse first but come direct to the factory for storage and processing into a premium apple Piemix and apple sauce or puree for specific customers.

Over the years new products have been trialled under contract processing for a variety of end users.These include a many cooked and uncooked fruit purees,sauces,sliced and diced fresh or frozen apple,deseeding fruits(kiwifruit and berry fruit),even creating olive paste from whole brined olives.A new addition to the process factory is a hot fill system to fill a variety of fruit purees into 1-20kg containers.

Processing of organic apples has been undertaken under another companies umbrella for use in baby food for the domestic and export market.

Fruitpackers started marketing and exporting fresh apples in its own right in 2000 and now sells 80% of its fruit direct to market. Having built strong long term relationships with reputable receivers who in turn have solid programs in the supermarket chains, Fruitpackers have taken a long term quality driven approach as this is seen as the only way of achieving the best returns consistently.

Being a grower co-operative provides a number of strengths and advantages.

These include having a high grower input and close associations with our markets resulting in good open communication between grower and customer to ensure customer requirements are met. We pride ourselves on our customer focus and the strength of the relationships that we have built with our customers.