Post-Harvest, Storage & Transport Intake

Why We Ask So Many Questions

If your losses happen after harvest, you already know the frustrating part: the crop was fine when it came off the field. Something in the building, the container, or the time between them is taking your margin.

That “something” is almost never one thing. Mould spores are already in the air of every warehouse on earth — the store trap sampling we’ve run shows the difference between a clean bay and a contaminated one can be a factor of three or four in total spore count, in the same building, on the same day. Insects arrive with the load, live in the cracks of the structure, and re-infest the moment a treatment stops. Humidity, temperature, airflow, load density and dwell time all decide whether those organisms find your product hospitable or hostile.

So the questions below are about your building and your handling, not just your pest. We need to know the volume of the space, how it’s sealed, how air moves through it, what the temperature and humidity actually run at, how long product sits, and how fast it turns over. Those numbers determine whether a solution will work at your site, what size it needs to be, and what it will cost — before anyone quotes you anything.

What we do with your answers

Our atmosphere technology works by generating short-lived reactive species that break down odour compounds and rupture the membranes of viruses, bacteria and mould spores through a physical-chemical process called lysis. Because the mechanism isn’t biological, pathogens cannot develop resistance to it the way they do to fumigants. The reactive agent is consumed within seconds and never accumulates.

But it has an operating envelope. Effectiveness is sensitive to relative humidity, temperature, the load level in the room, and the level of competing contaminants in the air that consume the reactants before they reach your product. Your answers tell us whether your facility sits inside that envelope, whether it can be brought inside it, and how the system should be configured — recirculation or extraction, and at what capacity.

What we will and will not claim

On pathogens, moulds and odours we are on firm ground. Independent testing against Aspergillus niger, one of the most resistant organisms there is, showed germination effectively eliminated after three minutes of exposure, with mortality rates for aerosolized organisms above 99%.
On insects we are honest with you. High insect mortality has been repeatedly observed in our facilities, but it was observed during experiments designed to test something else. We have a mechanism we believe explains it and we have not yet run the controlled trials to prove the dose and duration for your specific pest. If insects are your primary problem, we will tell you that plainly and design a demonstration to establish it on your commodity — not sell you a promise we haven’t earned.
On your product, we have long-run evidence of safety. In sea-freight simulations, cut hydrangeas were exposed continuously for more than sixty days with no adverse effect on storage life or vase life, in flower or foliage.

A few things worth knowing up front

You do not need to have data you’ve never collected. If nobody has ever run a spore trap or logged humidity in your building, say so. We’ll show you how, and that baseline becomes the number your results are measured against.
Skip anything that doesn’t apply. A dry-grain silo operator and a cut-flower exporter see different questions.
Your information is confidential and used only to design your program.

The more accurately you describe your building and your handling, the more accurately we can size and price the solution.

Website

Please use a business or organisation email address

To cut down on automated spam, this form only accepts business or organisation email addresses. We cannot accept free email services such as Gmail, Hotmail, Outlook, Yahoo or iCloud. Please use the address at your own company, farm, cooperative, club, university or government domain. If you do not have one, call or message us directly on WhatsApp, Telegram or Signal at (+57) 313 598 0325 and we will take your information personally.

Section 1 — Who You Are

1. Full name, company name, and role required

2. Country, region, and physical address of the facility required

3. Phone, email, preferred language and contact method required

4. What is your relationship to the product and facility?

5. Who else needs to be in this conversation?

Operations manager, QA/food safety, maintenance, logistics, ownership/finance.

6. Who has final authority to approve a program and release funds?

Section 2 — Your Goals

The most important section. We do not produce a capacity or price indication until this and Sections 4 and 5 are complete.

7. What do you want to accomplish? Describe the outcome in your own words. required

8. What do you want from us specifically?

9. How will you measure success? Give us a number. required

Percentage reduction in spore count, insect count, rejection rate, shrink, claims, or complaints.

10. What is your control?

An untreated bay, a second warehouse, last season's figures, or pre-treatment baseline sampling.

11. Is this driven by a specific event, or by ongoing loss?

A rejected shipment, a failed audit, a customer complaint, a regulatory change — or steady attrition.

12. What have you already tried, and what happened?

If a demonstration achieves the goals you've described, and that is formalized through a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), how soon could you implement the full program?

Funds placed in trust up front to cover the cost of a demonstration can be credited toward a full contract if we proceed together. Does that structure work for your organization?

What would most constrain moving forward?

Budget alone, an internal approval process, both, or something else — tell us so we can plan around it.

If something else, or if you want to add detail to the above

Section 3 — The Commodity

13. What product is being stored or shipped? Species and variety. required

14. What form is it in? required

15. Is it in bulk, bagged, boxed, palletized, or on racks?

16. Moisture content at intake, and how is it measured?

17. Is the product respiring, living, or dormant?

Fresh produce, cut flowers and seed for planting are treated very differently from inert dry goods.

Because your product is living or respiring: in sea-freight simulations, cut hydrangeas were exposed continuously for more than sixty days with no adverse effect on storage life or vase life, in flower or foliage. We will not extrapolate that result to an untested commodity — if yours is different, we establish it by trial before we make any claim to you.

18. Is any part of this crop intended for planting as seed?

19. Is the product destined for human consumption, animal feed, processing, or ornamental sale?

20. Approximate tonnage or volume per season, and peak volume held at one time

Section 4 — The Facility

These are the sizing inputs. Volume, seal quality and load level decide capacity — and capacity does not scale linearly.

21. What type of facility? required

Is this space used solely for storage, or does it also include shipping/transit space that needs to be conditioned to maintain freshness in transit?

22. Internal dimensions and total volume of each space to be treated required

Length x width x height, and cubic metres if you have it. This is the single most important number for sizing.

23. Construction, floor type, and condition of walls, roof and seals

Concrete, steel, timber, membrane?

24. How well does the building seal?

Anything to add about sealing

25. Describe ventilation and airflow

Natural, forced, aeration fans, recirculation, extraction. Air-change rate if known.

26. Is there existing HVAC, refrigeration, or humidity control? Make and capacity?

27. Typical load level as a percentage of volume

Load level directly affects treatment effectiveness.

How is the space loaded?

Floor-stacked, racked, aerated bins.

28. Is electrical power available at the treatment location?

Voltage, phase, spare capacity.

29. Is sensitive electronic equipment installed in or adjacent to the space?

Control systems, computers, scales, sensors. This matters for siting — the modified atmosphere should be kept away from electronics.

30. Do people work inside the space, and for how long at a stretch?

31. Do you have a floor plan, elevation, or interior photographs?

Describe what you have — we will send you a secure upload link.

Section 5 — Environment and Conditions

32. Temperature range inside the space

Through the year, daily and seasonal.

Temperature detail

Daily and seasonal swing, and any controlled set points.

33. Relative humidity range inside the space

Our optimal operating window is 50–70% RH and 18–25 °C. Outside that range is not necessarily a barrier, but it changes the engineering and we need to know it now.

Humidity detail

34. Are temperature and humidity logged? By what equipment, and can you share the data?

35. Is condensation, wet spots, roof leakage or floor moisture an issue anywhere?

36. What is the ambient outdoor climate?

Humidity, rainfall, seasonal extremes.

37. What else is in the air in this space?

Dust, exhaust fumes, fuel, solvents, ammonia, decomposing material. Airborne contaminants consume reactants before they reach the target, which reduces effectiveness. This is one of the most commonly missed variables.

Describe what is in the air

Section 6 — The Problem

Do these same problems also show up in the growing area — in the field, before harvest?

If the issue starts upstream, the post-harvest side may only ever be managing a symptom.

Would you be open to field-side control as part of the solution, if the problem starts there?

Because you have selected insects, here is where we stand, plainly. High insect mortality has been repeatedly observed in our facilities — but it was observed during experiments designed to test something else. We have a mechanism we believe explains it, and we have not yet run the controlled trials to prove the dose and duration for your specific pest. If insects are your primary problem we will say so, and we will design a paid demonstration to establish it on your commodity rather than sell you a promise we have not earned. On moulds, pathogens and odour we are on much firmer ground.

40. Name them. Common name, and genus and species if you have it.

41. Has any laboratory identification been done?

Spore trap, plating, taxonomic report, insect ID. Describe it — we will send you a secure upload link.

42. If insects: which life stage are you finding, and where?

Eggs, larvae, pupae, adults? In the product, in the structure, in the equipment, in the residue at floor level?

43. Where does infestation originate?

44. Where in the building is the problem worst?

Describe the good areas and the bad areas, and what is different about them.

45. At what point does it appear?

At intake, after a set number of days, at a certain temperature, on export arrival.

46. How long does product sit before the problem shows?

47. What percentage of throughput is affected?

48. Do you have photographs, lab reports, rejection notices or claim documents?

Describe what you have — we will send you a secure upload link.

Section 7 — Current Control Program

49. What is currently used?

Fumigant, contact insecticide, sanitizer, ozone, controlled atmosphere, cold, heat, cleaning protocol.

50. Product names, rates, frequency, and who applies them

51. What does the current program cost per year, all in?

Chemical, labour, licensing, downtime.

52. How much downtime does each treatment cost you?

Days out of service, and what that is worth.

53. Are you seeing resistance developing, or declining effectiveness over time?

54. What is your cleaning and sanitation protocol between loads or seasons?

55. Is there a pest monitoring program?

Traps, counts, inspection schedule. Who runs it, and can you share the records?

Section 8 — Regulatory, Certification and Market Constraints

56. What certifications or audit schemes apply?

Organic, GlobalG.A.P., BRC, HACCP, phytosanitary, kosher/halal, others.

57. Are there residue or MRL limits you must meet, and for which markets?

58. Are any fumigants or treatments restricted, being phased out, or refused by your buyers?

59. Which countries or buyers does this product ship to, and do any impose specific treatment requirements?

60. Are there worker safety, occupancy or ventilation regulations governing this space?

61. Does your insurance or buyer contract impose conditions on treatment methods?

Section 9 — Throughput, Handling and Transport

62. Describe the full path and where responsibility changes hands

Field → intake → storage → processing → dispatch → transport → destination.

63. Typical dwell time in storage, and the maximum

64. Is this permanent storage or a temporary staging point before shipment?

65. How often is the space emptied and re-filled?

66. How is product transported out?

Truck, rail, sea container, air, reefer.

67. Transit duration to destination, and conditions during transit

Temperature, humidity, controlled atmosphere.

68. Do losses occur in transit, on arrival, or at the customer's facility? Who bears that cost?

69. Are containers or trucks treated before loading?

70. Is intake product from your own farms, or from multiple third-party growers?

If the problem arrives with the load, the fix may belong upstream in the field — and we would rather tell you that than sell you equipment.

Section 10 — Baseline Data

71. Do you have historical loss figures by season, by bay, by commodity?

72. Have air samples or store traps ever been taken in this facility?

Describe the results — we will send you a secure upload link.

73. Are insect trap counts recorded over time?

74. Are you willing to run baseline sampling before treatment begins?

This is what converts "it seems better" into a number you can take to your buyer, your insurer or your board.

75. Who would collect the samples, and is there a local laboratory you use?

Section 11 — The Economics

76. What do post-harvest losses cost you every year?

In tonnes, in percentage, and in currency.

77. What is the value of the product held in the facility at peak?

78. What do rejections, downgrades, claims or returned shipments cost annually?

79. Does quality grade or shelf life affect your selling price, and by how much?

80. What are current annual treatment and sanitation costs?

81. What is your budget for solving this? required

We ask directly because it saves us both time. Below a certain figure a program cannot be executed properly, and it is better for everyone to know that on day one.

Anything to add about the budget

82. Is this an operating expense or a capital purchase? Is funding approved?

83. Is grant funding, buyer co-investment, or insurance-driven funding part of the picture?

84. Would you prefer to purchase equipment, lease it, or contract a treatment service?

Section 12 — Installation and Demonstration Readiness

85. Is there a space available now where a demonstration could run without disrupting operations?

Detail on the available space

86. Can you isolate a treated bay and an untreated control bay of comparable size and load?

87. When is the facility next empty, and when does peak season begin?

88. Who on site would be responsible for following the protocol and recording data?

89. Are you able to modify the space if required?

Sealing, ducting, power, airflow.

90. Are there access, security or biosecurity restrictions on outside personnel and equipment?

91. Are you prepared to agree written success criteria before we begin?

92. What is your timeline, and is there a hard deadline driving it?

93. Anything else about your facility, your product or your situation we should know?

One last check

What is 4 + 4? required

Your information is confidential and used only to design your program.

What happens next

Your answers come to us directly. We review them and tell you honestly whether this is a problem we can solve, whether it’s a problem that actually starts upstream in the field, and what information we still need — usually baseline sampling and a temperature/humidity log.

From there we design a demonstration with written goals: what will be installed, how it will be operated, what it costs, and what result we are committing to. You will know exactly what you’re buying before you spend anything.

If a question above didn’t make sense for your operation, leave it blank and tell us why. That’s useful information too.