01
Buying harvest volume on the spot market
Every packer in a region needs pallets in the same fortnight. Availability genuinely runs out.
FixBook eight to twelve weeks ahead. It is insurance, not a discount.
01Planning around a harvest window
A packing operation that needs 40,000 pallets across six weeks cannot be served the same way as a distribution centre needing 800 a week. Recovery cannot be accelerated on demand — cores arrive when they arrive — so peak supply has to be built ahead of the window.
- Twelve weeks out: confirm volume, size and grade. This is when we start accumulating.
- Eight weeks out: pricing fixed, delivery schedule agreed.
- Four weeks out: first staging deliveries, so you are not starting from zero.
- During: scheduled releases against your actual run rate, adjusted weekly.
- After: collection of empties and damaged stock on the same lanes.
02Produce-specific requirements
- Ventilation. Respiring produce generates heat and moisture. Open-deck or gapped configurations let air move; solid decks trap it.
- Moisture. Wet field conditions plus warm produce is the fastest route to mould on a pallet. Heat treated or kiln-dried stock resists it.
- Weight. Produce bins are heavy and often stacked. Check racked capacity, not just static.
- Bin systems. Many operations run wooden or plastic bins rather than pallets. We supply, repair and recover both.
- Export. Fresh produce leaving the country needs ISPM-15 treatment like any other cargo.
03Closing the loop on farm
Agriculture is one of the few sectors that consumes both ends of our process. Pallets go out to the packing shed; unsalvageable wood comes back as ground fibre and goes out again as animal bedding. Bedding-grade fibre is screened finer than landscape mulch and dried, and it is metal-free by the same double-magnet process described under mulch and biomass.
By the numbers
The figures worth remembering
Four numbers that decide most of what follows on this page.
- Weeks of lead time for harvest volume
- 8–12Weeks of lead time for harvest volume
- Spot premium at peak, when stock exists at all
- 20–35%Spot premium at peak, when stock exists at all
- Sector that consumes both ends of our process
- 1Sector that consumes both ends of our process
- Bedding-grade fibre screen size
- 0.25–0.75 inBedding-grade fibre screen size
Rules of thumb
Carry these in your head
- 01Manufacturing can add a shift. Recovery cannot.
- 02Demand arrives all at once, so supply has to exist beforehand.
- 03Specify ventilation for anything that respires.
- 04Agriculture uses both ends of the loop — pallets out, bedding fibre back.
Before you order
The decisions we will ask you to make
A quote turnaround is limited by how many follow-up questions we have to ask. Working through this list removes nearly all of them.
- 01
Confirm volume twelve weeks out
Recovery cannot be accelerated on demand. Accumulation starts when you confirm.
- 02
Grade B, usually
Field conditions consume a Grade A premium within a season.
- 03
Ventilation
Respiring produce generates heat and moisture. Open-deck configurations let air move.
- 04
Moisture control
Wet field conditions plus warm produce is the fastest route to mould.
- 05
Book the collection leg too
Otherwise the season ends with eleven thousand empties behind the packing shed.
- 06
Bins as well as pallets
Both need the same forward planning.
What goes wrong
Expensive mistakes, and the fix for each
Every one of these turns up in ordinary purchase orders. All of them cost multiples of whatever they appeared to save.
02
Booking supply and not collection
The trucks delivering into the window can collect on the way out, which is cheaper for everyone.
FixPut both legs in the same agreement.
03
Leaving damaged stock outdoors over winter
It deteriorates until next season, when it is worth substantially less.
FixRepair over the winter, or sell it while it still has value.
Side by side
The season, planned
| When | What happens |
|---|---|
| 12 weeks out | Volume, size and grade confirmed. Accumulation starts. |
| 8 weeks out | Pricing fixed. Delivery schedule agreed. |
| 4 weeks out | Staging deliveries so you do not start from zero. |
| Window open | Scheduled releases, adjusted weekly. |
| Window closes | Collection of empties and damaged stock. |
| Post-season | Repair of returnable stock for next year. |
Against our interest
When this is the wrong answer
We would rather lose the order than sell you the wrong thing. These are the situations where this page is not what you need.
- 01
Spot buying inside the harvest window
Every packer in a region needs pallets in the same fortnight. Availability genuinely runs out, not just gets expensive.
- 02
Grade A in field conditions
The premium is consumed within a season. Save it for anything going onto a cold-store rack.
- 03
Solid decks under respiring produce
Heat and moisture need somewhere to go. Ventilated configurations exist for a reason.
What moves the price
Cost drivers, and roughly how much each one is worth
A quote is not a list price with a discount applied. It is these variables added up, which is why two quotes for nominally the same thing can differ so widely.
| Driver | What it is | Rough effect |
|---|---|---|
| Booking lead time | Accumulation starts when you confirm. Twelve weeks out against two weeks out is a different product entirely. | 20–35% at peak |
| Regional harvest concentration | Simultaneous demand across a whole growing region. | Availability, not just price |
| Moisture and treatment | Wet field conditions plus warm produce is the fastest route to mould. | +$1.10–1.90 |
| Return leg | Whether collection is booked alongside supply. | 15–30% on the round trip |
Due diligence
Questions to ask any supplier
Us included. The answers tell you a great deal, and so does how quickly they arrive — a yard that has these documents ready is a yard that has thought about them.
- 01
“When do we need to confirm volume for next season?”
- 02
“Is the price fixed at booking, and for how long?”
- 03
“Is collection of empties included in the same agreement?”
- 04
“What ventilation configuration suits our produce?”
- 05
“Can damaged stock be repaired over winter rather than replaced?”
The rulebook
Standards and authorities that actually apply
Plenty of pallet marketing invokes standards loosely. These are the real documents behind this subject, and what each one does and does not cover.
- USDA / PACA requirements
Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act obligations covering the condition in which produce is shipped and received.
- ISPM-15
Applies to fresh produce leaving the country like any other cargo.
- GLOBALG.A.P. and Primus
Produce assurance schemes whose packing-house requirements touch pallet condition and storage.
- Mulch and Soil Council certification
Relevant at the other end of the loop, where recovered fibre becomes animal bedding or landscape product.
Vocabulary
The terms used on this page
Defined the way the trade uses them, not the way a dictionary would.
- Grade B
- Companion stringers permitted, up to five replaced boards, up to three plugs, squareness within 0.75 inch. The most commonly traded recycled grade.
- Heat treatment (HT)
- Raising the core temperature of wood to 56°C for 30 continuous minutes to satisfy ISPM-15. Also drops moisture to 15–20%.
- ISPM-15
- International Standard for Phytosanitary Measures No. 15, governing treatment of solid wood packaging crossing international borders.
- Core
- An as-collected used pallet — unsorted, unrepaired and ungraded. Raw material rather than a product, and priced accordingly.
From the journal
Longer reading on this subject
Written by the people who grade, repair and haul the wood — including the articles that argue against buying from us.
Industry6 min readTom Okafor
Seasonal agriculture and the twelve-week booking window
Forty thousand pallets across six weeks is not a larger version of eight hundred a week. It is a different problem, and it has to be solved in February.
Read
- agriculture
- seasonal
- planning
Materials7 min readMarcus Ellery
Wood moisture and the mould problem nobody specifies against
Mould on a pallet is almost never a structural problem and almost always an audit problem. The fix is moisture, and moisture is a storage question as much as a supply one.
Read
- moisture
- mould
- food safety
Questions
Answers to what buyers actually ask
Straight answers, including the ones that cost us the sale.
How far ahead should I book harvest pallets?
Eight to twelve weeks. Recovery volume cannot be accelerated on demand, so peak supply is accumulated in advance. Booking also locks pricing before the seasonal spike.
What grade do I need for field use?
Usually Grade B. Field and orchard conditions are hard on pallets and a Grade A premium is consumed within a season. The exception is anything that goes on a rack in a cold store, where grade should be matched to the racked load.
Do you supply produce bins as well as pallets?
Yes, both wooden and plastic, new and recovered, and we repair and recover both at end of season.
Can pallets be reused after a season in the field?
Many can, and it is worth sorting rather than assuming. Field exposure costs moisture content and surface condition more than structure, so a meaningful share repairs back into service. We collect after harvest, grade what comes back and credit the recoverable share.
Do you supply ventilated pallets for produce?
Yes, and the specification that matters is deck board spacing rather than grade. Tighter decks suit bagged and boxed produce; wider spacing suits anything that has to cool in transit. Tell us the product and the cooling method and we will set the gap.