Case study: Pre-COVID optical sorting investment pays off for Harris Woolf
Since investing in a five-strong SORTEX FB2 optical sorting line and an additional stand-alone FB2 sorter, U.S. almond huller processor Harris Woolf has been able to streamline its entire process. 70 million pounds of almonds which once took 8-10 months to process, now takes the company just 5-6 months. The huller processor has also been able to increase its cleaning and sizing throughput from 12.000 to 30.000 pounds per hour, performing all of its cleaning on just one pass. This pre-COVID investment put Harris Woolf in a strong position when the pandemic struck, enabling staff to adhere to social distancing regulations whilst the company continued full operation of its packing line.
Roughly halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco lies Coalinga, a city in Fresno County on the western edge of the San Joaquin Valley in central California. Just 17.000 people live in Coalinga, but for 30 years it has also been home to the almond processing plant of Harris Woolf, U.S. almond processor and the world’s premier independent wholesale almond product producer.