The current apple and pear harvest season is defined by a dichotomy of abundance and adversity. In North America, a projected large apple crop, led by a record harvest in Washington State, is colliding with market oversupply, stagnant domestic demand, and crippling cost increases. This has created a critical financial squeeze, forcing some growers to consider drastic measures like orchard removal.

At Croptracker, we work with customers to help optimize their produce packing for traceability, improved logistics and sales and this often involves working with ‘packlines’. In the fresh produce industry, a 'packline' is a dedicated facility or system where harvested fruits and vegetables are processed, sorted, and packed for distribution to consumers.

Packing is a critical step that occurs after the product is picked from the field and before it is shipped to markets, grocery stores, or restaurants. However, not all packing operations are equal, in fact, most are pretty unique and custom built. In this article we take a look at the main components of a produce packline, who are the major players in the industry and explore some of the things to consider when considering implementing or updating a packline.

In this special edition of our Croptracker Customer Spotlight series, we take a closer look at several growing association users. The Ontario Apple Growers (OAG), Tender Fruit Growers (OTF) and Fresh Grape Growers (OFGG) worked with Croptracker to develop and launch our Association level features, now in use by several grower associations around the world. In this article we will explore the benefits for Croptracker Association users through the lens of their staff, Kelly Ciceran, Sarah Marshall and Larissa Osborne. We will also explore some of the advantages to their organization’s growing members Croptracker accounts.

Croptracker will be releasing software updates more frequently in an effort to better inform and support all our users about new features and reports that might work for them. Below are the updates from August 11 through the 15th, 2025. As always, be sure to contact support@croptracker.com for more information on any of these updates.