Specification
Citrus box formats and pallet configuration
Box formats and pallet planning for professional citrus orders. The figures below are sector references; our packing options need confirmation.
Formats
- 15 kg
Telescopic box
40 × 30 cm
- 10 kg
Box
40 × 30 cm
- 20 kg
Box
60 × 40 cm
- 1–3 kg
Mesh bag
for shelf
- On request
Shrink-wrapped tray
premium retail
Palletisation
| Euro pallet | Industrial | |
|---|---|---|
| Base dimensions | 800 × 1200 mm | 1000 × 1200 mm |
| Empty weight | ~25 kg | greater, varies |
| Maximum static load | ~4.000 kg | similar or greater |
| 15 kg boxes per layer | 8 | 9–10 |
| Stacking heights in fruit | 8–10 layers | 8–10 layers |
| Net fruit per pallet | ~840–960 kg | ~945–1.080 kg |
Euro pallet and industrial pallet compared
Euro pallet
- Base dimensions800 × 1200 mm
- 15 kg boxes per layer8
- Stacking heights in fruit8–10 layers
Industrial pallet
- Base dimensions1000 × 1200 mm
- 15 kg boxes per layer9–10
- Stacking heights in fruit8–10 layers
The sector planning reference shown here uses a payload of 24.000 kg, with 22–24 tonnes across 24–26 euro pallets. The actual load must be checked with the packer and carrier.
Check gross shipment weight, pallet count and loading dimensions with the carrier.
Kilos per pallet depend on the box format, the stacking height and each shipper's packing list. They are sector orders of magnitude and get confirmed with the packhouse before quoting freight.
The format follows the handling
What happens to the fruit after it comes off the lorry is the part we cannot see from here, and it is what a format has to survive. A pallet broken down into single boxes the same afternoon asks far more of a box than one that goes into a storeroom and gets issued to a kitchen over a fortnight. Tell us which of the two it is.
Every format on this page is a planning reference taken from sector practice, not a list of what our packhouse runs. Our own confirmed options are pending. Which format can actually be supplied for a given cultivar and quantity, and whether a label or a presentation is possible at all, are questions for the grower and the packer, and a box becomes part of an order only once somebody has confirmed it.
Working out the fruit behind a pallet
Net fruit weight per box multiplied by boxes per pallet gives the planned quantity for that configuration, and planned is the operative word. Where a pallet mixes products or formats, each one needs its own line, or the total is arithmetic without a subject. Your purchasing team compares what was ordered against what is described for dispatch, and that comparison works only if both sides are using the same unit.
Net and gross are the two weights that get mixed up, and they get mixed up in the direction that annoys a carrier. Gross includes the packaging and the pallet. Stock records use net. Which figures in circulation are planned and which have been over a weighbridge is worth asking before a freight booking depends on them, because our own pallet configurations are not confirmed.
The pallet has to fit your warehouse
Only you know the pallet base your warehouse accepts and the height it can take. The equipment that will move it counts for as much. A familiar pallet name covers a lot of ground: it fixes the base and leaves the height, the overhang and the load pattern open. Where the pallets have to go into a specific storage position, those dimensions are part of the specification too.
How boxes are stacked and secured changes what arrives intact, so the arrangement is worth agreeing rather than assuming. Pallet exchange is a separate matter, and one we run no service for: whether pallets come back, get exchanged or get charged has to be written into the offer. A particular pallet specification can be asked for, and its cost and availability checked, before anybody treats it as agreed.
What a carrier needs in order to quote
A freight enquiry needs the pallet count, the overall dimensions and the gross weights, together with both addresses. Booking slots and unloading restrictions go with them. A quote built on an incomplete load description gets revised once the packing configuration is fixed, and the revision tends to land after you have already quoted your own customer.
For less than a full vehicle, whether a suitable arrangement exists at all depends on the route and on the handling the fruit needs. We have no confirmed shared-load service and no standard transit schedule. Transport temperature and handling instructions are agreed for the actual fruit rather than read off a table, and a freight estimate is not part of a delivery offer until the arrangement behind it has been confirmed.
The packing list is what the warehouse checks
A packing list that separates products and formats is the document a receiving team actually uses. What it has to show is the package quantities, the net fruit weight and the pallet identification. Where several lots share a shipment, how the team is meant to tell them apart needs deciding in advance, and our own lot identification is pending confirmation with the grower.
At reception the physical packages get compared against the list, and the labels stay with anything that does not match. Damaged boxes and an unstable load are photographed before the pallet is rearranged, because the state on arrival stops existing the moment somebody tidies it. Your warehouse team needs the contact and the reporting route in advance. A record made at the dock, naming what arrived and which packages were affected, is worth more than a description written the next morning.
Packing format
The packing formats and what each one implies for the pallet and for the channel it suits.
- Boxes on a euro pallet, and the height question
- The industrial pallet, and when it pays its way
- The 10 kg box, and the weight you trade away
- The 15 kg citrus box, and what it sets
- The 20 kg box, and the pallet it rebuilds
- Mesh bags of oranges, and who owns the label
- Orange trays, where the count fixes the weight
- A pallet that mixes sizes or varieties
- Net kilos off a full pallet, format by format
- Exchange pallet or one way, and who pays
- Gross and net on a pallet, and which paper carries which
- How high a pallet of oranges can be stacked
- Pallet ventilation, and the warm core inside
- How many pallets fit in a European truck
- Securing a pallet of fresh fruit for the road
Talk to the grower
Tell us the variety, the sizes and the delivery week you need. You get a delivered price and what we can commit to in writing, from the person who picks the fruit.
The grower handles enquiries. Response times are still to be confirmed.