The sustainable and humidity-resistant box design will facilitate long-distance transport of food
The new sustainable corrugated box for Mexican fresh produce segment (Credit: Mondi)
Sustainable paper and packaging solutions provider Mondi has collaborated with Mexican corrugated packaging firm Cartro to provide sustainable packaging solutions for the fresh produce segment.
Cartro has entered into the fresh produce market with a new sustainable avocado box designed by Mondi.
Around 14% of the world’s food is lost between harvest and retail sale, as per the 2019 ‘State of Food and Agriculture’ report from the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).
The development of suitable packaging for fruit and vegetables will help address the global problem of food waste, said Mondi.
Mondi corrugated packaging CEO Markus Gärtner said: “At Mondi, we have developed a customer-centric approach called EcoSolutions, which helps us to deliver the right sustainable packaging solutions for our customers.”
Both firms have developed a new corrugated box by using FirstClassFlutes by Mondi and ProVantage Kraftliner Aqua paper grades.
Mondi’s paper grades are said to deliver high edge crush test (ECT) and box compression test (BCT) values, helping to deliver better strength in humid conditions and reduce up to 18% in weight.
The new corrugated box does not require to be coated with paraffin
Cartro is provided with the flexibility to save costs and run higher corrugator speeds, as the boxes do not require to be coated with paraffin.
Cartro CEO Juan Javier Gonzalez said: “Our company is the biggest independent corrugator in Mexico and known for reliability and quality. Thus, when we decided to enter a new market, we needed to be able to stick to our guiding principle of ‘Quality on time’.
“We wanted the new packaging to be a quality reference point, so we joined forces with Mondi to develop a lightweight corrugated box that can withstand the challenges of long haul transport in humid environments.”
In June 2019, Mondi unveiled a new recyclable packaging film for fresh and processed food. The company’s recyclable polypropylene (PP) film is suitable for the thermoforming of flexible films for modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) and vacuum packaging.