Choosing a Weighing Scale for Fruit Picking

Harvest times vary greatly, depending on the different fruits and vegetables. It can be a challenging to supply fresh seasonal produce year-round. To guarantee distribution and delivery of fruits and vegetables year-round, it’s vital to carefully weigh, pack and distribute these products.

Agriculture is one of the largest industries in South Africa, from growing produce on farms and plantations to selling it commercially in supermarkets and produce stalls. Harvest times vary greatly, depending on the different fruits and vegetables. It can be a challenging to supply fresh seasonal produce year-round. To guarantee distribution and delivery of fruits and vegetables year-round, it’s vital to carefully weigh, pack and distribute these products.

Why do I need to weigh fruit?

Whether you are a retail customer or large-scale wholesale buyer, chances are good that your purchases are based on weight. Grocery store shoppers might buy a 1kg bag of potatoes or 300g of strawberries, whilst a buyer for a large retail supermarket chain will order five pallets of avocados that have a standard weight per pallet. In this instance, it’s important to be certain the pallets are weighed on approved trade scales.

Many types of produce scales are available. It’s important to know how much you want to spend and what your produce-weighing needs are before deciding on the type, size and style of scale.

Platform Scales

Platform scales are ideal for industrial environments such as warehouses, loading docks and packing facilities. They’re available with different capacities and various sizes of weighing pans. These scales are versatile and can weigh almost anything … from small boxes and tote bags to pallets and crates.

Use a platform scale for parts counting when stacking and measuring multiple crates. To ensure each crate weighs the same amount, use the checkweighing function for verification. Larger platforms work well in tandem with indicators that provide LED checkweighing lights and an alarm for accurate check counting and stock monitoring.

Price-Computing Scales

Price-computing scales are used to weigh fruit and vegetables in supermarkets and other small commercial retailers. Some varieties of computing scale come with NRCS trade approvals for selling fruit and vegetables by weight commercially.

Washdown Scales

Washdown scales are ideal for weighing fruit, as they include stainless steel weighing pans that can be easily cleaned after weighing juicy or dirty produce. Many washdown scales can perform checkweighing tasks and can be placed on a workbench or tabletop, instead of occupying valuable floor space.

Fruit scales for vineyards

South Africa is renowned for its lush grape vineyards and that produce wine commercially for shipping across the world. Accurate fruit scales help vineyard owners verify the weight for each crate or box, allowing them to maintain stock counts.