PETpla.net Insider 06 / 2018

BOTTLING / FILLING PET planet Insider Vol. 19 No. 06/18 www.petpla.net 44 44 less sunny, which means that the fruits are less sweet when they ripen, than in the warmer north. But the juice obtained from these oranges scores highly in terms of taste, precisely because of this lesser sweetness and its vibrant, intensive colour. Sr Ricardo Ermirio de Moraes’ company was the first to export NFC (Not From Concentrate) juices from Brazil - a decision that has turned out to be quite vision- ary. He was ahead of where the market was trending. Natural One was also ahead of the game in 2014, when it became the first firm in Brazil to bottle 100% NFC juice in PET containers. By the autumn of the same year, it had sold out its stock completely. The company responded to this unexpectedly high demand by ordering a new aseptic line from Krones. By early 2016, it was installed and in pro- duction. “This technology has enabled us to translate our idea of natural juices into fully functional real- ity”, according to Valdenir Soares, of Natural One’s New Business Brasilian fruit juice grows market share by using Krones aseptic PET bottle filling Setting trends with ready-mixed drinks Ricardo Ermirio de Moraes, the founding father of Cit- rovita and, subsequently, the long-serving President of Citrosuco set up a new company, Natural One, about ten years ago. The company’s first products were ready-mixed vodka-based fruit juice mixtures, bottled in PET. In 2012 he decided to launch pure fruit juices on the market, with the slogan “pura verdade” (“pure truth”); the Natural One pura verdade drinks are 100% juice; they contain no concentrate or cordial, no added sugar and no preservatives. It was the first company in Brazil to offer such products packaged in PET bottles. Valdenir Soares, head of the new business development department, Natural One Natural One’s juice comes primarily from its own oranges. Mr de Moraes arranged for five million new orange trees to be planted on a farm measuring 2,800km 2 (280,000ha; 1,081mi 2 ). This “fazenda” is located in the cooler south of São Paulo state. This looked strange because the area is BOTTLING / FILLING