News
Tomakomai Futo (TOMAF), a warehousing and transport service provider in the northern Japanese prefecture of Hokkaido, will take part in a verifying test to keep ornamental flowers and plants fresh to be conducted by the city of Tomakomai, which is also in Hokkaido. TOMAF will form an industry-academia-government partnership with Food Techno Engineering, headquartered in Osaka, and others.
The verifying test will be carried out to make the Port of Tomakomai a logistics hub for high-quality ornamental flowers and plants. Four locally grown species will be stored in a specialized refrigerator for 10 days, the maximum number of days required for intra-city logistics in Tomakomai. Then, their freshness will be checked after they are taken out of the refrigerator.
More specifically, the high-humidity refrigerator has a platinum catalyst that controls ethylene, a plant hormone that promotes flower, plant, fruit and vegetable ripening. It is also capable of preserving freshness to store products for long periods of time by controlling temperature and maintaining 90% or higher humidity without spraying water mist. Also used will be a controlled atmosphere (CA) reefer container that keeps flowers, plants, fruits and vegetables from respiring and becoming oxidized by controlling temperature as well as oxygen, CO2 and other air compositions in detail.
The four species will be stored through Thursday in the high-humid refrigerator, the CA reefer container and a regular refrigerator without a platinum catalyst and from next Monday through Nov. 5 with a platinum catalyst. Their freshness will be checked three days after they are taken out of the refrigerators and container.
