Costa Rica new office
Tropical Food Machinery sets up Costa Rica office, aiming to expand into center-American and Caribbean markets
Tropical Food Machinery, a global leader in the sector of fruit processing machinery, has strengthened its presence in Costa Rica by opening a new office in the country’s capital San José.
Founded in the late 1970s, the Italy-headquartered company currently boasts an operating branch in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, two-fruit processing plants located in the north of the country, as well as liaison offices across the Asia-Pacific and West Africa regions.
The goal is to improve the company’s product offering across the Central American, Caribbean and Mexican areas. “We see a lot of opportunity to shore up our commercial presence in these growing markets, and they can benefit from working with a partner with over four decades experience in the field,” said Stefano Concari, Tropical Food Machinery’s General Manager.
The firm’s new office is immersed in a hub of other commercial locations, allowing sales executives the convenience of meeting with clients in a centralized area. Tropical Food Machinery appointed Carlos León, an experienced chemical engineer who has collaborated with the company since the early 2000s, as head of operations. León will build out a local team responsible for providing after-sales support service, prompt technical support and spare parts service.
“Costa Rica is strategically located to help the company expanding in the region”, ensured Leon. Despite being a small country compared to other tropical fruit producing ones in Central America, the nation is the largest exporter of pineapple and the fourth largest banana exporter in the world.
Some of Tropical Food Machinery’s large-scale industrial lines are particularly suited for the processing of such products. The extraction line for pineapple, which has an input capacity from 1000 up to 20.000 kg per hour, ensures excellent yield of extraction through the combined action of peeling machines, which remove almost all the bark and peel, and pressing machines, which extract the juice from the pulp.
Among the company pineapple-processing units is also the Ginaca. This machine is capable to automatically form cylinders from pre-calibrated fruits, providing full solutions for pineapple-derived products:
As for banana, the company offers a series of innovative processing lines that have been developed for the various stages of banana process, from the receipt of the raw material, manual and automatic peeling, to the aseptic filling of the purée qualitatively equal to the highest standards available on the market. These machines have an input capacity that range from 3000 up to 20.000 kg per hour.
Every line is designed in-house and then built and tested before every and each delivery. This enables a complete control over quality and productive speed, creating a strong sense of responsibility within the company’s workforce.
Apis Flora - Concentrated Propolis Line
In 2019, we completed the delivery of a concentrated propolis production line through alcoholic extraction and subsequent vacuum evaporation. The process involves the propolis, initially in the form of wax from the apiary, being added to grain alcohol within a process tank specifically designed for this purpose. In the mixing tank, the product is kept constantly stirred, undergoing successive heating and cooling operations over many hours. After this period, the propolis will be diluted. The settled sediment is discarded, and the product is sent to the concentrator for alcohol evaporation and propolis concentration. The concentration pot facilitates vacuum evaporation, and the evaporated alcohol is recovered in an indirect condenser and sent back to the alcohol accumulation tank. The final product is pure and concentrated propolis. All equipment was constructed following safety standards for explosive atmospheres and ATEX certification. Currently, the line is in perfect operation, adding value to our customer.