Fruit and vegetable growers moving to clean, lightweight and durable plastic crates

Plastic is not exactly in vogue at the moment but it does have its advantages in transportation and storage environments. Don Marshall Head of Ecommerce & Fulfilment at Scottish based company Exporta believes it a much better material for pallets and crates than wood.

"Fruit and vegetable growers are moving away from the traditional wooden crates used during harvest time to the clean, lightweight and durable plastic crates," explains Don.

"Plastic does not rot and can be easily washed after use in the fields or glasshouses. We have crates which are used by retailers, bale arm crates, which are easily stackable in-store and fit inside each other when empty, cutting down the space required to for return transportation."

Exporta have a variety of sizes and colours of crates and other storage and transportation solutions for the fresh produce sector and many other industries which they source from various suppliers in the UK and abroad.

"We stock the most common ones but can get any size or colour made to order. We have several different suppliers and tend to carry a high amount of stock in our warehouse. We have a large variety of pallets available to purchase for next day delivery."

One of the company's main products is plastic pallets, those sold by Exporta are fully recyclable and 98% are made from recycled plastic. "Most of our retail customers want recycled products, unfortunately food grade products can't usually be made from recycled products due to hygiene protocols and containers must be made from virgin product, but if the product is going to be washed afterwards, then recycled can be an option. We also have a free recycling service for plastic which has come to the end of its life."