VX Logistics automates fresh produce cold chain

VX Logistics is extending automation across fresh-produce handling in China, combining artificial-intelligence inspection, automated warehousing, real-time temperature monitoring, sorting, ripening, packaging, and robotic delivery within integrated customer operations.

VX Logistics says its technology stack connects physical automation with its OTWB management system and IoT-based temperature-control platforms, allowing product location and temperature data to remain visible as fresh produce moves through storage and distribution.

One of the more visible elements is a self-developed delivery robot operating at 61 Shenzhen metro stations. The machines handle replenishment and delivery tasks for retailers based at the stations, extending automation beyond the distribution centre into the final stage before goods reach individual outlets.

Further upstream, machine vision is being used to assess attributes including colour, size, and visible defects, while automated handling equipment supports material movement and palletising. IoT sensors monitor load temperature and location so operators can identify deviations before a consignment reaches its destination.

Fresh produce creates a demanding environment for that combination of technology. Fruit and vegetables continue to respire after harvest, product condition changes during storage, and relatively brief excursions outside the intended temperature range can reduce useful shelf life even when the goods remain saleable at the point of receipt.

Physical handling also affects quality. Bruising or compression introduced during movement may become more visible later, which places limits on how aggressively automated equipment can handle apparently robust cases or pallets. Speed has to be balanced against the mechanical characteristics of the produce and its packaging.

VX Logistics’ operation for Zespri shows how far logistics activity can extend into process-adjacent work. The service covers warehousing, quality inspection, ripening, automated sorting, and packaging, giving the distribution operation direct influence over the condition and presentation of fruit before it reaches retail customers.

Ripening is particularly significant because it turns the cold-chain facility into an active process environment rather than passive storage. Temperature, gas composition, time, and product maturity have to be controlled closely enough to deliver fruit at the required stage, while the operation still has to coordinate sorting, packing, inventory, and dispatch.

The company also provides services for Driscoll’s berry supply chain, where it uses customised temperature- and humidity-control systems. VX Logistics states that the programme supports close to 200 million boxes entering the market each year, putting even small changes in handling time or temperature stability against a substantial product volume.

Automation can standardise parts of this work. Machine vision allows defined visual criteria to be applied repeatedly, while continuous temperature and location data provide a denser operating record than periodic manual checks at receipt and dispatch.

The technology still depends on operating rules. A camera can identify a defect only if the classification model reflects the condition that matters commercially, while a temperature alarm is useful only if the organisation has an agreed response and enough time to intervene before product quality deteriorates.

Warehouse automation has a similar dependency on software. Automated movement can reduce repetitive travel and make product flow more predictable, but the equipment needs reliable information on inventory, order priority, product condition, and dispatch timing. Fresh produce cannot simply remain in storage when demand changes because useful life continues to decline.

That makes the connection between the OTWB platform, cold-chain data, and physical equipment more consequential than any individual robot. Linking inspection results, storage conditions, inventory, and movement gives operators a better basis for deciding which stock should move first and where intervention may be required.

The same convergence is appearing elsewhere in food logistics as cold stores take on tempering, coding, packing, and other activities that once sat more clearly inside the factory. In perishable categories, the boundary between processing and distribution has always been blurred by refrigeration and shelf life; greater automation makes that overlap more visible.

VX Logistics is applying the model within a Chinese fresh-produce market that handles substantial imported and domestic volumes across geographically dispersed retail networks. Maintaining product condition depends on the performance of ripening rooms, storage systems, sorters, packaging operations, transport, and last-stage replenishment rather than on refrigeration alone.

The delivery robots deployed in Shenzhen are the most visible part of the system, but much of the operational effect comes earlier. Inspection, temperature control, inventory logic, ripening, sorting, and packaging determine whether the product reaching that final delivery stage still meets the customer’s specification.

Connecting those activities gives the cold chain a role closer to continuous production control. The technology is useful when it reduces the gaps between physical product condition and the information used to decide where that product should move next.