In season, the day at the packing house follows the rhythm of the vineyard. The grapes that are picked have to be sorted, packed and cooled quickly, because table grapes lose water from the moment they leave the vine.
1. Harvest
The grapes are picked once the sugar content meets the minimum set by the EU marketing standard for the variety, and are placed in crates in the vineyard. From there they reach the packing house quickly.
2. Intake
Every batch is recorded when it arrives, with its grower and field. This is where traceability begins: for every pallet that leaves, we know where the grapes came from.
The grapes have already been checked for pesticide residues before harvest. Analyses are also carried out per batch, by Veltia Labs for Life in Thessaloniki.
3. Sorting
The packing house has three sorting lines. Every bunch is checked and cleaned, and anything that does not meet the specifications is removed. The weight of each pack is checked at 100 workstations with scales.
4. Packing
Packing is done in the format each customer asks for and under the customer's own label. Punnets are sealed on a Proseal GT2s tray sealer.
- Punnets, heat-sealed or clamshell10 × 500 g · 6 × 750 g · 10 × 1 kg
- Bags in carton4.5 kg · 5 kg
- Loose in carton2 kg · 7 kg · 10 kg
- Net bag1 kg
5. Cooling
Grapes do not ripen any further after picking. All that can be done is to preserve them, and the faster they are cooled, the less water they lose.
Finished pallets are pre-cooled and moved into the eight cold rooms. Cold and humidity keep the stem green and the berry firm. For table grapes, −1 to 0 °C and 90–95% relative humidity are recommended internationally.
6. Loading
The pallets are loaded onto refrigerated trucks from the two docks of the packing house. They leave for retail chains and importers in 18 countries, and for the Greek market.
Who audits the process
Sorting and packing are audited every year under the IFS Food standard for food safety and quality. In the vineyard, the GLOBALG.A.P., GRASP and SPRING standards apply. All four certifications were renewed in 2026. See what each one covers.
The packing house in numbers
- 2,300 m² of covered space on a 4,000 m² site
- 3 sorting lines and 100 workstations with scales
- 8 cold rooms
- 2 loading docks
