Kārums starts using a robot to package curd snacks

In 2023, Food Union, the leading Latvian dairy processing and ice cream manufacturing company, launched a large-scale investment project aimed at automating the cheese curd, fresh dairy product and ice cream production plants of Rīgas Piena Kombināts. The project aims to speed up and improve the packaging of products, which had until now been done manually. The “robotization” of the Kārums curd snack packaging has now been completed and a similar robot will be installed in the fresh dairy and ice cream production plants by the end of the year. In total, €2.2 million have been invested in the project.

“Food production is moving with the times and innovating to improve the way we work – faster, easier, smarter and more productive! Whereas before this physically heavy task of stacking transport packages on pallets was handled by three people per shift, it is now perfectly replaced by a robot that is manned by two people on all shifts – an operator and an automation technician. The Kārums robot is capable of palletizing 900 boxes of cheeses in an hour and can lift up to 180 kg without any problems. By equipping our factories with such robots, we are slowly saying goodbye to physically demanding jobs that are no longer attractive to people, and instead creating more intellectually challenging and technically exciting jobs,” comments Artūrs Čirjevskis, Head of Food Union in Latvia and Europe.

It was previously made know that three new machines were purchased under the project with the participation of the Rural Support Service. An automatic ice-cream packaging system worth more than €1.41 million was purchased for the Food Union Ice Cream Competence Center. For the modernization of the Fresh Dairy Center of Excellence of Food Union, an automatic curd snack packaging line worth EUR 550,000 and a cream cheese packaging line worth EUR 390,000 were purchased.

In 2023, public procurement processes were completed, suppliers of all equipment were selected and installation work is currently underway, with the first equipment to be installed in the Kārums curd snack production plant. The project will increase Food Union’s productivity, which in turn will lead to increased sales abroad of its most popular export products: ice cream, curd snacks and cream cheese.