7. Which type of packaging to use?

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The product requirements, the marketing system and the personal preference will determine the type of packaging to use. Whatever type of packaging is used it must have at least one of the characteristics mentioned in Chapter 3 and the packaging must pay for itself either by preventing losses, or by making the produce more marketable, or by decreasing the transport and handling costs.

The requirements for packaging are summarised in a checklist. An empty form and an example are given in Annex V, and instruction sheet 3 is designed as a training guide for deciding which type of package to invest in. Although the importance of each item in the checklist may differ for each trader, commodity and market system, it should be assumed that crates used in the interisland trade in the Eastern Caribbean must meet the following requirements:

• The crates should withstand very rough handling.
• One of the standard ISO/OECD/MUM system sizes is preferred.
• The crates should be of a collapsible or stack-nest design, in order to decrease return cost or to have no return cost at all.
• The crates should be large enough to hold melons and pumpkins, but should also be suitable to hold smaller produce.
• A maximum of 25 kilogram of produce per crate to keep the crate manageable for one person.

In the first column of the checklist each characteristic (containing, protection, communication, marketing and cost/miscellaneous) gets a weight percentage according to the importance of that characteristic in the trade. Protection could be for certain traders the most important function of packaging and for others cost may be the most important factor. Marketing and communication are not yet important characteristics of packaging in the inter-island trade but they may well be in near future. The total of the first column must be hundred percent.

In the second column the percentages given to the main characteristics are further divided over the subcharacteristics. For instance, protection during handling is considered the most important part of the protection function of packaging, while the use of liners (which are not commonly used), is rated as not important. Again the total of this column should be hundred percent.

In each of the following columns one type of package is specified such as woven basket, carton box, plastic stack-nest crate and a larger plastic stack-nest crate. Working through the checklist for each package, a value is given in the first column under the package: ++ = excellent, + =good, o = fair,— = unsuitable, — — extremely unsuitable.

In the second column the importance of the sub-characteristics and the value for the package are multiplied, e.g. 5% and value ++ gives (5 x 2)+ = 10+ and 3% and value - gives (3 x 1)— = 3—. Finally this column is added up (+ and —) and the results in each package column should represent a fair comparison between the different packages.

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