FOR many years now Mount Uncle Grazing Company has been at the forefront of diversification on the Atherton Tablelands, but with the second generation of farming Watkins now firmly in place, they have added invention to their list of achievements.
Rob Watkins, Farm Manager for the Mount Uncle property which runs cattle and grows macadamias, avocadoes and bananas at Walkamin, has invented the Banana Blankey a new packaging method for bananas.
Rob who won inventor of the week award on the ABC’s New Inventors program earlier this year said time and again he saw the product get to market in a condition worse than when it left the packing shed.
“We would get crucified on price and I thought there has got to be something we can do,” Mr Watkins said.
“I started by looking at the packing in a banana carton. In one Lady Finger variety carton we had five separate packing materials from tissue paper to bubble wrap and it still wasn’t achieving the desired result.
“As part of developing the Banana Blankey, I looked at the costs involved in sourcing these separate products and the added labour of a skilled banana worker to individually handle these five materials.”
The goal for Mr Watkins was to get his fruit to market (1700km away) in as good a condition as it left the packing shed.
“To gain that market advantage of having my fruit arrive there in 99 per cent of the condition that it left the shed is worth a lot of money. Personally I’ll spend extra dollars not cents per carton to achieve this goal,” he said.
While the exact type of material is considered commercially sensitive information, he said the Banana Blankey is made from a totally recyclable material that is capable of holding water and is manufactured in Australia.
“This was something we felt very strongly about. So many of our inventions have gone off-shore, but we wanted it to be made by Australians for Australians,” Mr Watkins said.
This innovative packaging material that seems set to revolutionise the banana packing industry is produced in large rolls before being freighted to the nearby Lotus Glenn Correctional facility.
Here Prisoners cut the material to a shape suitable for use in the standard packing carton.
“At this point we need the Corrections facility on board to reduce the labour costs and make it viable,” he said.
“As things progress and we are able to mass manufacture, the price of the ‘Blankey’ which is now almost double that of traditional packing materials will reduce substantially.”
Currently, Rob is doing tests on the ideal hydration levels for the Banana Blankey, he said.
“We know that a banana loses five percent of its weight for each day it is transported but by providing hydration in the Blankey we believe we can decrease this loss and that means big gains in the market.”
With Biosecurity Australia’s decision to allow Philippine imports Australian bananas are likely to be under a lot more scrutiny in the future.
“We know Australia already grows the best fruit but we have to get it to our markets in as good a condition as it left our sheds. This is where the Banana Blankey is critical,” Mr Watkins said.
There are very broad provisional patents pending for the Banana Blankey both within Australia and worldwide.
*More horticulture news in the Nth Qld Fruit and Vegetable Grower Magazine, free inside this week’s North Queensland Register.
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