From the font in which labels are printed to the bright colour of the plastic containers and the easy tear tape on the outer cartons,

the company has deconstructed its previous packaging with the help of farmers all over the world, and adapted a host of changes designed to take the pain out of chemical selection, handling, mixing and application.
 

“Pain points was the phrase used to describe all the things our focus group farmers did not like about current packaging and labelling of agrichemicals,” explains Adama NZ manager David MacGibbon. “And they came up with 100 of them!”
 

Dealing to the majors was not a quick job, but the result is worth the wait, he says, and early feedback from merchants has been very positive.
 

“The most obvious change for them is the streaming of the different brands into two categories, with associated colour coding

clearly differentiating to each category as well as each end use.
 

“It’s much better from a merchandising point of view, because the packs look great on the shelf, but more importantly it also makes correct product selection really fast and easy.”
 

The two new categories are Advanced and Essentials, with the Advanced range comprising Adama’s hero brands and products.
 

“These feature chemistry which is unique to Adama, or provide a differentiated benefit to the farmer,” MacGibbon says.
 

Essential products are the brands which are well known to farmers and feature greater prominence of the active ingredient to help farmers and growers who are growing a crop according to a programme to quickly match the product to their industry spray schedule.
 

Within each category, products have been further differentiated according to whether they are a herbicide, fungicide, insecticide or crop enhancer.
 

Advanced products are identified by block colour packs: green for herbicides, blue for fungicides, purple for insecticides and orange for crop enhancer.
 

Essential products have the same colour labelling for each end use on white plastic containers.
 

Macgibbon says the key with this was to help eliminate the chance of farmers making costly mistakes by applying the wrong product.
 

As for the fine print, Adama has gone to the extent of developing its own unique font to help address another major pain point – the amount of text which must be contained on today’s agrichemical labels vs the deteriorating eyesight of those trying to read the labels as farmers world wide become older.
 

“Ageing farmers are not a NZ phenomenon,” MacGibbon points out. “In many countries the average age of farmers has been steadily increasing at the same time as the volume of text legally mandated for labels has also increased.”
 

New Adama labels are also tabbed for quick reference, and designed to be able to be opened by gloved hands while QR codes enable the user to scan straight to a quick user guide and dosage calculator.

Outer cartons meantime now feature easy tear packaging tape which removed the need to use a knife or box cutter.
 

As well as these changes, MacGibbon says Adama is developing a completely new system of packs to address more pain points for farmers.
 

“There are some really cool new features coming, including a new easy-turn cap which is able to be opened even when wearing

gloves but secure enough to stop tampering or access by children.
 

“We’re also working on eliminating the need for foil under the cap which means farmers have to remove their gloves to cut through it, and using radio frequency identification (RFID) tags to improve tracking and inventory management.”
 

Other pending improvements include packs with anti-glug valves, a secondary handle to making pouring easier, a sight glass and measuring scale, and stackability.
 

For more detail contact your local Adama area manager.