It sounds so fundamentally simple, but Reefer Air Flow Technologies'(RAFT) new RAFT Kit significantly improves airflow in refrigerated containers by shifting direction from vertical to horizontal.

This simple but effective change boosts refrigeration efficiency and enhances cooling, ensuring better freshness for exported produce.

The idea originated in Cape Town, South Africa, where an expert in fruit storage and transportation, Professor Malcom Dodd of Stellenbosch University, and the late Peter Worthington-Smith, a renowned refrigeration engineer, collaborated to develop the horizontal air flow (HAF) kit. 

This innovation used a floor liner placed over the T-bar container floor to direct airflow under the cargo, reaching within3m of the container door. Inflatable dunnage bags were placed above specific pallet rows to prevent air from bypassing the produce.

This ensured air flowed horizontally through the entire load before returning to the refrigeration unit, improving cooling efficiency.

The original HAF kit worked extremely well in improving humidity levels and narrowing the fruit pulp temperature range and while the kit was initially successful, particularly in the stone fruit sector, installation time was too slow.

In 2015 work began on a baffle system to replace the dunnage bags and speedup installation.

Reefer Air Flow Technologies was incorporated in 2019, and the new patented RAFT baffle was included with a variety of added innovations into what is now the full RAFT Kit.

With its extremely low cost, a major consideration versus other interventions, the RAFT Kit is being adopted at an ever-increasing rate by grape, citrus, as well as mango, plum and other stone fruit shippers in southern Africa, looking to prevent spoilage and wanting higher returns for their produce.

The RAFT Kit has made a significant difference to a variety of fresh produce shippers, especially in the grape industry, which faces long lead times between packhouses and the ports of Cape Town in South Africa and Walvis Bay in Namibia.

These containers are subject to extremely high ambient temperatures.

The strict ITCT (in-transit cold treatment) requirements for a significant portion of southern Africa’s citrus exports have proven to be a challenge for the industry, and the RAFT Kit is attracting more attention for its ability to help shippers easily adhere to strict protocols.

Australian fresh fruit exporters face similar challenges, such as similar ITCT protocols, long and hot transfers of fresh fruits to the ports, and long voyages to principal markets, most of which cross the equator.

Many trials have been conducted across a large variety of fresh fruit varietals, mostly in southern Africa, with compelling results which translate into significant benefits for shippers, including:

•Prevention of hotspots and a narrower temperature range due to increased and more penetrating air flow, preventing spoilage and cold damage and preserving consistent flavor.
• Quicker cooling after loading and quicker temperature recovery after defrosting cycles, both as a result of increased air velocity, extending the shelf life of the produce

• Better control of relative humidity in the container reducing dehydration and the resultant weight loss of the produce.

• Increased refrigeration efficiency with corresponding lower power consumption.
Further trials are scheduled this year in South Africa for apples, avocados and berries.
Recent indoor trials in New Zealand with kiwifruit lead by Peter Jeffery, a post-harvest technologist and Dr. Abdulquadri Alaka, a cold chain specialist in post harvest refrigeration, both of Massey University, have also shown outstanding results.

These were the most controlled trials so far, thanks to precise ambient environmental control and the use of the same refrigerated container, instruments, and fruit fortwo control trials and two RAFT trials, run alternately.

The differences measured between the two configurations are therefore most likely as a result of the RAFT Kit.

The results are still preliminary, and more data analysis is needed, however initial findings show overall container temperature ranges reduced by nearly 60 per cent, and target temperatures were reached more than 50 per cent quicker in the worst performing areas of a standard refrigerated container.

RAFT director Craig Osner spoke at the 2025 Australian Citrus Congress in the Riverina of NSW at the invitation of Ramsay Zreikat of Colin Campbell (Chemicals), RAFT’s distributor in Australia, and Heather Deeble of RAFT New Zealand.

Craig will be returning to Australia soon to lend his experience and expertise to more trials planned to prove the RAFT Kit in the Australian fresh produce industry, with some of the largest exporters in Australia.

RAFT also hopes to coordinate these with the Queensland Department of Primary Industries to learn as much as possible from its experience and knowledge of the Australian industry and better understand which sectors can most benefit from the RAFT Kit.

If you wish to take advantage of Craig’s visit and take part in these upcoming trials, or for further information contact Ramsay or Heather at campbellchemicals.com.au/raft