TOMRA 5S Blueberry Calculator
What are mis-graded blueberries costing your packhouse?
Every season, good berries end up in the wrong pack. Pick the loss you want to look at,
set three numbers, and see what that fruit is worth.
Your packhouse
Total fruit moving through the packhouse each season
Percentage of sellable fruit that ends up in the waste stream
How much more per lb saleable fruit earns over waste
Recoverable value
If that fruit came back out of the waste stream and was sold.
If your waste rate is higher or lower
Same weight, same price gap. Only the rate changes.
How this is worked out
The weight of fruit packed is multiplied by the share going to the wrong stream, then by the price gap for that stream. With both together selected, the two results are added. Nothing else is assumed. Switch to metric to work in kilograms and price per kilogram instead of pounds.
What it deliberately leaves out
Labour on the grading table, and what those people could be doing instead.
Claims and markdowns on arrival caused by bloom loss in transit.
Fruit handled more than once through recirculation, and the damage that causes.
Time lost to cleaning and changeovers.
Every one of those adds to the figure above rather than reducing it, so treat this as the conservative number.
Before you rely on it
This is an estimate built from the numbers you entered, not a guarantee of results, and it is not a quote. Actual recovery depends on your fruit quality, defect mix, grade specifications, machine settings, seasonal pricing, and market requirements. Your real mis-grade rates are the hardest inputs to know, which is exactly why they are worth measuring.
Want the real figure for your packhouse rather than an estimate? We can walk through your packout data with you and show you where the value is going.
Talk to us about your packhouse
