Auckland's Compac Sorting Equipment has won a multimillion dollar deal to make an electronic cherry sorter for California company Prima Frutta.

The cherry sorter - which will have 36 lanes sorting cherries and which Compac says will be the world's largest - will be able to grade 42,000 cherries per minute.

The company's InVision system uses digital cameras to grade cherries based on their colour, surface blemishes, dimension, softness and bruising.

It won the contract along with cherry equipment company Van Doren Sales - based in Washington State. Van Doren will provide machinery for delivering the cherries to and from the sorter.

Compac said the sorter would give Prima Frutta "extensive labour saving and capacity gains", through reduced manual grading and more accurate and consistent grading.

Compac sales and marketing director David Buys said the deal was a major endorsement of its small fruit sorter.

"It shows that the leading cherry packers have confidence that we have the best technology available and we're able to deliver significant projects on-time and on quality."

The sorter will be installed early next year.

Compac's win follows another major win in the United States: it is currently installing a citrus sorter in Delano, California after it won the US$15 million contract last year.

Compac has more than 300 staff, including about 160 in New Zealand - in Onehunga, Te Puke and the Hawke's Bay.

- © Fairfax NZ News