Wine is a fragile product, a labour of love for many winemakers and one that requires careful handling from grape cultivation to transportation. Owing to its cold weather, Canada remains one of the top producers and exporters of ice wine and home to over 480 wineries with British Columbia and Ontario being the largest provincial producers of wine, with an accumulated 407 wineries. Yet, many winemakers in the region experience the challenge when it comes to exporting wines in bulk. While traditionally, wineries have relied on drums and tankers to transport wines, today flexitanks are becoming a popular medium for transporting wine in bulk.
Before we look at the benefits of using flexitanks, let’s take a look at what you should consider when thinking about transporting wine in bulk—
- A delicate product, wine is impacted by extreme temperatures. Therefore, it is important to maintain optimal temperature. Take precautions to ensure that the temperature is maintained between 55 and 65 F with minimal variation during shipping bulk quantities of wine
- Ensure there is no contamination, re-fermentation, or oxidation that may cause spoiling and tainting of wines
- Consider the seasonality and geography of the area where the wine is being transported.
What are Flexitanks?
Flexitanks, also known as flexibags, is a bulk storage unit made from polyethylene and polypropylene. These are soft, light, giant bladders, fitted within a 20-foot shipping container and can be transported much like any other freight.
They are used in the storage and transportation of non-hazardous liquids such as wines, alcohol, edible oil, and fruit concentrates, etc. Flexitanks are easy to install, fill, and drain, and consists of fitting plastic and disposable bags. These tanks can have different volumes: cubic capacity ranges from 10.000 to 24.000 liters.
What are the benefits of using flexitanks?
Better Space Utilization
If you have used drums and tanks, you know that owing to their shape there is always unused space. This means that you are not fully optimizing the available space in one shipment, as a result, you will need to invest additional resources in transporting your wine. Given these tanks or flexibags are expandable, you can fill up all the available space, which will potentially lower the number of shipments you have to make.
Minimal Risk of Wines Contamination
Flexitanks lower the risk of contamination and oxidation of wines. How? Well, flexitanks are usually disposable—flexible bags are put into shipping containers for transportation. Given flexitanks are disposable or single-use items, there is minimal risk of cross-contamination with other liquids.
No Cleaning and Storage Cost
Traditionally, containers that had been used for the transportation of liquids such as wines had to be transported or shipped after use, and hygiene and cleaning cost had to be maintained. But with flexitanks being a single-use, disposal item you don’t have to worry about paying for storage or cleaning the empty drums or pay to have them transported empty. Flexitanks as stated above can be easily shipped and transported in a 20-foot container anywhere hassle-free.
More Environment friendly
Wondering if these tanks are environmentally friendly? Yes! They can be recycled and the materials can be reused.
Since you are able to transport more in one shipment— traditional bottle shipping can fit approximately 12,000 bottles worth of wine per truck, flexitanks can hold approximately 35,000 bottles worth of wine per truck— you are reducing the number of trips needed to transport your wines and thereby, saving the carbon footprint.
Quicker loading and unloading
Flexitanks will help you save time loading and unloading and eliminate the intermediate reload operations during transportation.
Depending on the type of tank you buy, a flexitank can hold approximately 24,000 liters. Given these tanks can hold a larger quantity in one-go loading becomes easier as you are only filling that one bag. They only need filling from the nozzle at the top once they are loaded on to the truck, which can be tackled by two or three team members, thereby reducing the cost of labor.
Reduced Risk of Leakage
The risk of leakage is typically no more than 5%. Nonetheless, you will need to ensure that you have tested the hoses, checked that all valves are in the correct position prior to loading. Similarly, during the transit and while unloading you will need to take all necessary measures such as using collecting bags or drip trays to prevent spillage.
Conclusion
Flexitanks are an efficient solution for transporting your wines in bulk. You not only save on the cost of labour, storing, cleaning but also ensure that the quality of your wines remains intact. As you think about bulk transporting your wines, be cognizant of the fact that only ISO certified flexibags can be used for transportation of non-hazardous liquids like wines, glycerine, oil, and juices.
At HCT, we provide an end-to-end service to our customers, making the bulk transportation of wines completely seamless. We offer ISO certified bags for purchase, as well as, install, uninstall, and dispose of used flexibags.
Contact us and learn more about our services.