Sunny Uppal has worked at his family-owned fruit orchard in Shepparton in regional Victoria since 2003 alongside his brothers Jaswant Uppal and Sam Uppal. The trio have now diversified into fruit packaging. Mr Uppal spoke about the challenges he faces as a grower and the proud history of on-farm sustainability.
- The Uppals produce and package fruits in Shepparton, Victoria.
- Their agribusiness is a source of income for many packing and farm workers.
- They use AI-powered robots to carry out packaging work and keep up with demand.
Nestled in regional Victoria, Shepparton is renowned for its high-quality fruit production and massive orchards, many of which are run by members of the Punjabi community.
One of those orchards is owned and managed by the Uppal family, which bought its first grove of apples and pears nearly twenty years ago.
In an interview with SBS Punjabi, Sunny Uppal said they have now expanded their operations at the orchard into a ‘high-end and fully automated’ packaging facility.
“We bought around 150 acres of land where we harvest apples and pears. But today, we are proud to share that we also have a fully automated packaging business catering to and supporting our local farming community,” he said.
Mr Uppal said the family business started on a very small scale where they initially only packaged their own produce. “We started with packaging our fruits, but today, we have a strong foothold in the fruit packaging industry.”
“Our business has grown to a level where we can handle packaging of over 25,000 bins in a single shed with each bin having a capacity of nearly 500 kilograms,” he said.
Mr Uppal said that meeting industry standards has always been important to grow the business.
“We’ve been using sophisticated automated camera systems that help us check fruits both internally and externally. A lot of investment has also gone into state-of-the-art technology for our cold storage facility,” he said.
Innovative techniques to sustain growth in challenging times
Mr Uppal said that while Australia’s farming sector is struggling with acute labour shortages, they have managed to stay ahead of the curve using innovative techniques.
“Australia is currently facing a critical labour shortage, and businesses are feeling the pinch as they struggle to keep up with demand and production levels.”
“While we also rely on manual labour, we have been able to sustain our production capacity with the help of AI robots who carry out the bulk of packaging work, helping us stay efficient and competitive,” he shared.
A source of income for many families
The Uppals are glad that their agribusiness has become a source of income for hundreds of packing and farm workers.
“It’s a great feeling. We’re very satisfied that our growth has also helped many families earn their livelihood. In fact, we owe our success to these fellow workers. We hope to continue this work with their support,” said Mr Uppal.
“The systems have improved over the past couple of years. The use of Dynamic Controlled Atmosphere (DCA) storage, which monitors the health of the fruit during the storage period, has revolutionised the whole process, increasing the shelf life of fruits during their cold storage,” he added.
“The DCA facility has changed us from a seasonal firm to a year-round packaging business, which means we can provide more work on an ongoing basis. During peak times we have around 50-60 packers working at our facility.”
Click on the audio icon to listen to an interview with Mr Uppal for more details: here
Source
Image Source
