Jan 29, 2009 9:03 AM

CHEP has announced the signing of a new long-term contract with Eurofresh Farms, a leading grower of greenhouse produce. Eurofresh uses CHEP pallets to transport tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers from its Willcox and Snowflake AZ facilities to supermarket retailers and wholesale clubs across the United States.

Before converting exclusively to CHEP in 2002, Eurofresh used one-way disposable pallets to transport product to market. The company made the switch to CHEP to address customer requests for a higher-quality, more consistent pallet. Eurofresh also wanted to improve the impact it was having on the environment.

Based on third-party Life-Cycle Inventory Analysis findings, Eurofresh is reducing solid waste generation by more than 1.9 million pounds per year, the equivalent of about 84 dump trucks of waste as a result of using the CHEP program as opposed to one-way wood pallets. The company is also reducing energy usage enough to power 155 homes with electricity for a year, and is contributing a 56% reduction of carbon dioxide emissions-greenhouse gas. That is equivalent to taking more than 89 cars off the road for one year.