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| Flower Transport Gel® | |
| This special gel has been developed by a Company of the same name, FTG Holland, to substitute water during the transport of flowers and for their presentation for retail sales. The water-based gel also contains nutrients and an anti-bacterial agent. The gel allows flowers to be transported long distances by sea rather than air. Depending on weight, this can save up to 50% on transport costs. The heavier the flowers the greater the saving. Because flowers can be transported horizontally also means lower volume/kilos (more flowers in the same space) when compared to flowers in buckets of water. Flowers can be put in the gel directly after being sorted and packed to improve storage life, depending on the temperature, humidity and length of the storage. The gel improves the conditiin and freshness of the flowers in transport through to an extended shelf-life at point of retail. The consumer can simly wash off the gel with water; the product is environmentally friendly. To date three formulations of the gel have been developed; ‘Bouquet Gel’ works on almost all types of flowers, one is specific to roses and another to lilies. A new packaging concept called Windtofresh using the gel has been developed by Wentus in partnership with FTG. It consists of a wrapper/sleeve with a gel reservoir. Flowers can go directly from packing shed to consumer via retailers (especially good for supermarkets and the organized retail distribution in general) with little or no extra handling. No additional work is required on the shop floor or to clean out and fill water buckets. In October 2006, the product concept was nominated for the ‘Gouden Noot’ award by the Dutch Centre for Packaging. This prize is awarded for the most innovative form of packaging to appear in the past two years. FTG Holland, Fax: +172 609776 E-mail: info@ftg.nl www.ftg.nl BTM Flower Processing Equipment manufacture line equipment, manually operated or powered, that make the use of the FTG gel easier. A bag of the gel is simply placed under each bunch of flowers. The amount of gel dispensed into the bag/wrapper/sleeve for each bunch depends on the size of the bunch and the thickness of the stems. Normally about 20 to 50cm3 is required per bunch. There are two ways to add the gel to a bunch. Either an extra small bag of gel is placed at the bottom of the stems and enclosed in the outer wrapper or the gel is added to the wrapper before the bunch of flowers. The simplest machine consists of a hand-pump mounted on the top of a 10 litre container of gel together with a holder for the plastic wrappers for the flowers. The flowers are placed in the bags once they are bunched, the gel added and the bad closed with elastic or tape. In a larger mobile machine the gel is dispensed from a 25litre container by a mechanical foot pump. The pump and bag holder are built on a frame structure mounted on wheels and the gel container is interchangeable. The flower bags. This machine is made for the larger companies and growers, who intend to put a large part of their flowers on the gel. Other versions of the BTM machines dispense the gel more quickly using electric air pumps and the gel container is independent of the machine to allow for greater flexibility. Fax: +497-571947 E-mail sales@btm-bv.nl www.btm-bv.nl |
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