From fruit plantation to juice production

Juice production of chokeberries

For a long time, Dorthe and Hans Peter Søeberg had been toying with the thought of establishing a juice production in addition to their fruit plantation.

In 2001, they planted chokeberries all over their land. The chokeberry is rather unknown but examinations have proven that the berry is one of the healthiest ever, and it is the berry in the world that contains the largest content of antioxidants.

An innovation check identified focus areas

”Through the Væksthuset we were referred to the Innovation agents with FORCE Technology”, recounts owner, Dorthe Søeberg.

”The innovation check identified two focus areas for our ideas; a strategy and marketing part and a process technical part in connection with initiation of the juice production. The innovation agents helped us apply for a knowledge coupon from the Danish Agency for Science, Technology and Innovation, and then the berries started rolling!

With help from FORCE Technology’s consultants we were able to make a business strategy and we reviewed the whole process of juice production. Due to the high content of antioxidants in the chokeberry, we have chosen a very gentle and careful production process. This posed special challenges. The consultants helped us handling the hygienic design, choosing equipment and designing the premises’ facilities and performing a risk based assessment of the future productive plant and procedures. All in all we feel that we gained a lot from the knowledge coupon we were allocated”.

This is only the beginning

”We are now already selling much more juice than we expected, and we are on the verge of planting more land in order to meet the increasing demand”, recounts Dorthe Søeberg. ”And this is only the beginning; we hope to find a technical solution which will enable us to use the residual product – the press cake from the juice production - for a new product, since many healthy active elements are left in the peel”.