ORLANDO, Fla.--Produce growers, like Farmer’s Best International, are saving hundreds of thousands of dollars each year with CHEP’s recyclable pallet program. Farmer’s Best, a large grower of cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, squash, grapes, mangoes and other fresh fruits and vegetables, is signing on with CHEP, a global pallet and container pooling services company, to ships all products on CHEP pallets from its Sinaloa and Sonora, Mexico and Nogales, Ariz., facilities to supermarket retailers, club stores and wholesalers across the U.S. and Canada.
Before deploying the CHEP pallet pooling program in 2003, Farmer’s Best used low quality one-way disposable pallets that were not cost effective. The produce marketer also experienced a challenge with consistent pallet supply.
“The relationship with CHEP is a win/win situation. We get high quality pallets at an affordable price, supplies have always been available and our customers are extremely satisfied. Farmer’s Best is a fast growing, high volume operation which means a lot of quality business for CHEP,” said Leonardo Tarriba, General Manager of Farmer’s Best, adding that the single source of pallets has resulted in significant savings for the grower.
Based on third-party Life-Cycle Inventory Analysis findings, Farmer’s Best is reducing solid waste generation by nearly one million pounds per year, the equivalent of about 42 dump trucks of waste as a result of using the CHEP program as opposed to one-way wood pallets. The company is also reducing energy usage enough to power 78 homes with electricity for a year, and is contributing a 58% reduction of CO2 emissions-greenhouse gas, which is the equivalent to taking more than 44 cars off the road for one year.*
“Farmer’s Best is combining a cost effective and an environment-friendly shipping solution to save money and reduce the company’s carbon footprint. The CHEP heat-treated phytosanitary pallet also helps Farmer’s Best meet the transport and customs regulations on product shipped from Mexico,” says Tim Smith, vice president, New Business Development, CHEP.
*Savings based on Life-Cycle Inventory Analysis of CHEP USA pallet pooling program conducted by Franklin Associates. The calculation is based on Franklin Associates, Solid Waste Analysis and Life Cycle Inventory of Pallet Systems, 2006 Update.
