Your Harvest Has an Expiry Date. Here's How to Push It Back: The Full Janny MT Storage List
Every durian season, I watch the same thing happen.
The fruit falls. The clock starts. And from that moment, every hour works against the farmer who grew it. By day three, the buyer knows you can't wait. By day five, he names the price.
At Bloopy Durians, my farm in Bentong, Malaysia, I decided to fight the clock. I put our durians into a Janny MT controlled-atmosphere module inside a cold room. In my own tests, it extended durian shelf life by 5 to 10 days. As far as I know, I am the first to test the module on durians in Malaysia.
So which fruits and vegetables can a Janny MT module keep fresh, and for how long? Janny MT publishes a range of 52 products: 15 fruits, 25 vegetables, a mushroom, 4 flowers, 4 herbs and 3 condiments. The maximum storage times run from 11 days for raspberries to 10 months for apples, garlic and yellow onions. Below you'll find every one of them, plus what those extra days mean for your farm, your export business or your wholesale trade.
The Short Answer What it is: A 610-litre bin with a sealed, clip-on lid. Membranes in the lid hold oxygen and carbon dioxide between 1% and 5% inside an ordinary cold room. What it stores: Janny MT's published range covers 15 fruits, 25 vegetables, 1 mushroom, 4 flowers, 4 herbs and 3 condiments. How long: Up to 11 days (raspberry) through to up to 10 months (apple, garlic, yellow onion). These are "up to" figures under ideal conditions. Weight loss: Janny MT says a maximum of 1.5%, against about 10% for apples or cherries in conventional storage. Tropical fruit: Durian and mangosteen are not on Janny MT's range page. My own field tests at Bloopy Durians: durian +5 to 10 days; mangosteen up to 18 days. |
I'm Stephen Loke of AgritourismSuccess.com, and my farm is featured in Bloomberg News and Asahi Shimbun. I am a representative and distributor of Janny MT. Bloopy Durians holds the rights to distribute and sell Janny MT modules and can supply them across South East Asia and Asia. If you want to talk about your crop, click the WhatsApp button and message me.
If you are new to these modules, start with my farmer's guide, Stop Dumping Your Harvest at Glut Prices: The Janny MT Module. This article goes one step further. It is the crop-by-crop list, with the storage times Janny MT itself publishes.
Why Time Is the Most Valuable Thing You Grow
Your fruit is still alive after you pick it.
It keeps breathing. It burns its own sugar, loses water and gives off heat. The faster it breathes, the faster it ripens, softens and loses weight.
That is why a crate of fruit is worth the most on the day you pick it and less every day after. It is also why so much fruit never earns a cent. I added up where that money goes in The Invisible Thief on Your Farm: How Post-Harvest Losses in Southeast Asia Steal Up to Half Your Fruit Money.
The second problem is timing. When every farm in the district harvests in the same week, prices collapse. If you can't hold your crop, you sell at the bottom. I wrote about that squeeze in Crop Prices Falling? How Farms Are Using Agritourism to Fill the Gap.
Storage doesn't grow more fruit. It gives you something just as valuable: the choice of when to sell.
How a Janny MT Module Works
Janny MT is a French company based in Péronne, in Saône-et-Loire. Its general manager is Benoît Janny. It makes storage modules for professional growers and the trade.
Each module has two parts. There's a bin, and there's a clip-on lid with a seal and selective-permeability membranes. You use the module inside a normal cold room. It does not make its own cold.
Janny MT builds its system on three pillars:
Temperature. The cold room is set to suit the crop.
Humidity. The sealed lid keeps moisture in, so the produce loses far less water.
Gas balance. The produce breathes and uses up oxygen. The membranes let a little oxygen in and a little carbon dioxide out, so both settle between 1% and 5%.
There's no gas injection and nothing to buy each season. The produce does the work, and the membranes set the limits.
Removable plugs let you close more or less of the membrane area. That is how one lid can suit cherries one month and cabbages the next. Janny MT says the same equipment works across its whole range, which its site describes as more than 20 vegetables, 15 fruits, 3 mushrooms and 3 flower species (the product list itself shows 1 mushroom and 4 flowers).
For the parts, models and gas analysers, see The Complete Guide to Janny MT Post-Harvest Modules.
The Full Janny MT Fruit Range: How Long Each Fruit Can Be Stored
Here is every fruit on Janny MT's published range, with its maximum storage time. I've turned months into days (30 days a month) so you can compare them at a glance.
Fruit | Maximum storage (Janny MT) | In days |
Apple | 10 months | 300 |
Pear | 7 months | 210 |
Pomegranate | 6 months | 180 |
Kiwi | 5 months | 150 |
Table grape | 5 months | 150 |
Passion fruit | 80 days | 80 |
Chestnut | 2.5 months | 75 |
Plum | 50 days | 50 |
Blueberry | 6 weeks | 42 |
Blackcurrant | 40 days | 40 |
Redcurrant | 40 days | 40 |
Fig | 1 month | 30 |
Cherry | 25 days | 25 |
Strawberry | 12 days | 12 |
Raspberry | 11 days | 11 |
Three things jump out.
First, the hard fruits win the long game. Apples, pears, kiwis and table grapes can be held for months. That turns a harvest-week crop into a crop you can sell for most of the year.
Second, the soft fruits gain days, not months. A raspberry at 11 days or a strawberry at 12 days is not a winter crop. But for berries, a few extra days can be the difference between dumping a glut and selling it calmly.
Third, look at the orange bars. Passion fruit (80 days), pomegranate (6 months) and fig (1 month) grow in warm climates. They matter for farmers in Asia, and I'll come back to them.
Field-Tested Play: Janny MT gives a real example on its site. Blueberries harvested in August can be sold in late September. Ask yourself: what does my crop sell for one month after the main harvest, when everyone else has run out? That price gap is the size of your opportunity. |
The Full Janny MT Vegetable Range
Vegetables make up the biggest part of the range. Leafy greens get weeks. Cabbages, roots and leeks get months.
Vegetable | Maximum storage (Janny MT) | In days |
White/red cabbage | 6 months | 180 |
Savoy/curly kale | 6 months | 180 |
Red beet | 5 months | 150 |
Chinese cabbage | 4 months | 120 |
Turnip | 4 months | 120 |
Radicchio | 4 months | 120 |
Leek | 3 months | 90 |
Black radish | 3 months | 90 |
New potato | 90 days | 90 |
Jerusalem artichoke | 90 days | 90 |
Brussels sprouts | 2 months | 60 |
Sugar loaf chicory | 2 months | 60 |
Topped radish | 2 months | 60 |
Pak choi | 60 days | 60 |
Broccoli | 1.5 months | 45 |
Cardoon | 1.5 months | 45 |
Cauliflower | 1.5 months | 45 |
Bunched radish | 1 month | 30 |
Fennel | 30 days | 30 |
Swiss chard | 28 days | 28 |
Asparagus | 25 days | 25 |
Lettuce | 21 days | 21 |
Lamb's lettuce | 21 days | 21 |
Broad bean | 20 days | 20 |
Spinach | 15 days | 15 |
For growers in Asia, two lines stand out: Chinese cabbage at up to 4 months and pak choi at up to 60 days. Both are everyday vegetables across the region. Both normally have to be sold fast.
If you grow vegetables and feel squeezed by cheap imports, read Cheap Imports Are Crushing Vegetable Growers in Malaysia and Agritourism Ideas for Vegetable Growers. Storage and visitors work well together: one protects your price, the other adds a new income.
Herbs, Flowers, Mushrooms and Condiments
The range doesn't stop at fruit and vegetables. Janny MT also lists herbs, cut flowers, a wild mushroom and three condiments.
The peony is my favourite example on Janny MT's site. Peonies bloom in spring, but brides want them for summer weddings. Hold them for up to 14 weeks and you sell into the wedding season, not into the spring glut. If you grow flowers, pair this with How to Start a U-Pick Flower Field and Tips for Organizing Farm Weddings and Special Events.
Coriander at up to 45 days is also worth a look for Asian growers. It's a kitchen staple across the region, and it wilts fast in normal storage.
What About Durians, Mangosteens and Other Tropical Fruit?
Here I'll be straight with you, because your money depends on it.
Durian and mangosteen are not on Janny MT's published range page. The storage times above come from Janny MT. The tropical results below come from my own farm.
Crop | What we know | Where it comes from |
Durian | +5 to 10 days of shelf life | My own field test at Bloopy Durians |
Mangosteen | Lasted up to 18 days in the module | My own field test at Bloopy Durians |
Passion fruit | Up to 80 days | Janny MT range page |
Pomegranate | Up to 6 months | Janny MT range page |
Fig | Up to 1 month | Janny MT range page |
Other tropical fruit (e.g. pineapple) | No results; not tested | Not on Janny MT's range page and not tested at Bloopy Durians. Ask before assuming results |
For durians, 5 to 10 extra days is a big deal. Our seasons run from December to February and from June to August, and a glut can hit any week of them. A few more days lets a seller wait out a crash, wait for a full load, or reach a buyer further away.
Mangosteens are famous for a short life after picking. In my test, they lasted up to 18 days in the module.
What about other tropical fruit, such as pineapple? It isn't on Janny MT's published range, and we have not tested it at Bloopy Durians. So there are no results to give you, and I won't make one up. If you grow a crop that isn't on the list, ask before assuming results.
Janny MT's own research page says its modules are designed to extend the shelf life of fresh produce that breathes. It also says the settings are not yet defined for every fruit, vegetable, flower and mushroom, and it invites growers to get in touch about new products.
Reality Check: The "up to" figures on Janny MT's range are best-case results for the right variety, the right maturity and the right temperature, mostly from European conditions. Heat, humidity, varieties and a broken cold chain in the tropics can change the result. Before you plan your season around a number, talk to us and run a trial on your own crop. |
How Farmers Benefit
Here's what extra days mean when you're the one who grew the crop.
1. You keep more of what you grew
You get paid by the kilo. Water that leaves the fruit is money that leaves your pocket.
Janny MT says conventional cold storage often costs about 10% of the weight for apples or cherries, and up to 20% for chestnuts. In its modules, the company says weight loss is held to a maximum of 1.5%.
Here's an illustrative example, not a real farm's result. Store 1,000 kg of apples. Lose 10%, and you have 900 kg to sell. Lose 1.5%, and you have 985 kg. That's 85 kg more fruit from the same trees and the same work.
2. You choose when to sell
Janny MT calls this selling at the best moment: moving part of a peak-season harvest into the off-season, when prices are usually better.
The peony held for summer weddings and the August blueberry sold in late September are both examples of this. You stop being the farmer who has to take whatever the buyer offers this week.
3. You lose less to gluts
When a glut hits, the farmer who can wait wins. Keep part of your crop in modules, let the market clear, and sell when the price climbs back. The cash-flow side of this is covered in Farm Cash Flow Problems.
I also see a bigger reason. Every glut that rots in the field is food a country grew and then threw away. In my view, being able to store produce through an oversupply is a small but real step for food security.
4. Your fruit stays good enough to sell fresh
Janny MT lists quality kept for longer, which means less of your crop has to go to processing at a low price. It also lists more volume sold, and the freedom to choose your market, for example a premium buyer instead of a bulk one.
5. It works for organic growers too
Janny MT says the modules can be used for organic produce. There's no gas injection and there are no consumables.
Field-Tested Play: Don't store everything. Store the slice of your crop that earns the biggest price jump when you hold it. For many farms, that's the fruit sold just after the main harvest, when the market runs short. Sell the rest fresh, at your farm stand or to visitors. My guides on selling fresh produce directly to visitors and why families drive out to buy direct show how. |
How Exporters Benefit
If you ship fresh produce across borders, time is the thing you never have enough of. Paperwork, vessel bookings and inspections all eat into the fruit's life.
Here's what Janny MT's FAQ says about moving the modules:
Up to 95 modules fit in a 40-foot container, and up to 117 on a standard truck trailer.
They stack 9 to 10 high, depending on the product. The bottom module can bear up to 2.4 tonnes.
Each module is 100 x 120 cm on the ground and 83 cm high, so it's handled much like a pallet.
They last 15 years or more. The membranes are not replaced, and the bins wash clean with water.
From my own work with the modules, they can go inside reefer containers, and the bins are stackable and handled like pallets. That means the same bin can work in your cold room and on the journey.
For an exporter, the extra days do three jobs:
A wider shipping window. You can wait for a full load or a better booking instead of rushing a half-empty container.
Better arrival quality. Your buyer judges the fruit when it lands, not when it was picked. Fruit that has lost less water and ripened more slowly arrives closer to how it left.
Room to fix problems. A late lab result or a delayed inspection doesn't have to mean a lost load.
Don't skip the last step. Janny MT says you should open the module and leave it in the cold room for 12 to 48 hours before selling, so the produce can re-adapt to normal air. Plan that time into your schedule at the receiving end.
For the full export picture, including how gluts at home meet stricter rules at the border, read Janny MT for Exporters and Distributors.
Reality Check: No storage system fixes paperwork. Ask these questions before every new market: Does the destination country need an import permit for this crop? What are its phytosanitary rules, and is my orchard or packhouse registered? Are there residue or lab-testing rules? Get the answers from your agriculture department and the importer before you ship. This is not legal advice. |
How Distributors and Wholesalers Benefit
Distributors live between the farm and the shop. You buy when the farmers harvest. Your customers buy every week.
Janny MT's modules help close that gap in four ways.
Flexible destocking. Janny MT calls this one of the system's unique advantages. Each module is its own small store. You open only what the market needs today and keep the rest sealed. In a big controlled-atmosphere room, opening the door affects everything inside.
Steadier supply. Spread one harvest over weeks or months. Your supermarket and restaurant customers get the same product, week after week.
Better pricing windows. Buy more in a glut, when prices are low, and release it when the market tightens.
Less waste. Lower weight loss and better quality mean fewer crates written off and fewer claims from buyers.
If you distribute fresh produce in South East Asia or Asia, I'd like to hear from you. As the local distributor, Bloopy Durians can supply the modules and help you work out which crops to start with. Click the WhatsApp button and tell me what you handle.
The Rules That Make It Work
The modules are simple, but they aren't magic. Janny MT's FAQ is clear about what you must do.
Reality Check: Before You Buy
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How to Get Started: Harvest to Market in Five Steps
Janny MT sets out five simple steps: harvest, pre-cool with the lid open, store with the lid closed, re-adapt for 12 to 48 hours, then sell. Follow them in order.
And here's the checklist I give farmers and traders before their first order:
☐ Which crop will I store first, and does it appear on Janny MT's range?
☐ If it's a tropical crop not on the list, have I asked before assuming results?
☐ Do I have a cold room, or can I rent space in one?
☐ Do I have a gas analyser in the budget?
☐ What price gap am I chasing (after the glut, off-season, export)?
☐ For export: have I checked permits and phytosanitary rules in the destination market?
☐ How many modules do I need? Janny MT prices in three tiers: 1 to 11, 12 to 100 (95 for a container export), and more than 100.
Treat storage as part of your farm business plan, not a one-off purchase. My guide on how to write a business plan for your agritourism venture walks you through the numbers.
Frequently Asked Questions
What fruits and vegetables can be stored in a Janny MT module?
Janny MT's published range covers 15 fruits (including apple, pear, kiwi, table grape, pomegranate, passion fruit, cherry and blueberry), 25 vegetables (including cabbage, leek, broccoli, Chinese cabbage and pak choi), the girolle mushroom, 4 flowers, 4 herbs and 3 condiments. Janny MT says it welcomes enquiries about products not on the list.
How long can a Janny MT module keep produce fresh?
It depends on the crop. Janny MT's maximum figures run from up to 11 days for raspberries to up to 10 months for apples, garlic and yellow onions. These are "up to" figures for the right variety, maturity and temperature.
Can Janny MT modules store durians and mangosteens?
They're not on Janny MT's published range. In Stephen Loke's own field tests at Bloopy Durians, the module extended durian shelf life by 5 to 10 days, and mangosteens lasted up to 18 days. These are farm tests, not published studies.
Do I need a cold room to use Janny MT modules?
Yes. The modules are not self-cooling. They must be used inside a cold room, and the produce must be fully cooled before you close the lid.
How much weight does produce lose in a Janny MT module?
Janny MT says weight loss is held to a maximum of 1.5%, compared with about 10% for apples or cherries and up to 20% for chestnuts in conventional storage. These are company figures from customer experience.
Can the modules be shipped in containers?
Yes. Janny MT says up to 95 modules fit in a 40-foot container and up to 117 on a standard truck. The modules stack 9 to 10 high, and the bottom one can bear up to 2.4 tonnes.
Where can I buy Janny MT modules in Asia?
Bloopy Durians in Malaysia holds the rights to distribute and sell Janny MT modules and can supply South East Asia and Asia. WhatsApp Stephen on 017-9250613.
Your Next Step
You now know which crops a Janny MT module can hold, for how long, and what that means for your farm, your shipments or your warehouse.
The next step is simple. Tell me your crop, your volume and where you sell, and my team will tell you honestly whether the modules fit and how to trial them.
WhatsApp Stephen 017-9250613 · www.bloopydurians.com
Want more income from your farm beyond storage? Take the free Farm Readiness Quiz to see if your farm is ready for visitors.
And download my free 21-Point Agritourism Blueprint to plan your first visitor experience.
P.S. Remember the durian clock I told you about at the start? For most farmers, it starts the moment the fruit falls, and the buyer knows it. The farmers who win are the ones who can say, "I can wait." A Janny MT module won't grow you a single extra fruit. But it can give you the days to sell the ones you have at a better price. Click the WhatsApp button and let's find out what it can do for your crop.
Sources
Janny MT, Controlled atmosphere: concept and product range (maximum storage times, weight loss, steps of use, advantages): https://jannymt.com/atmosphere_controlee/presentation_concept.htm?lng=en
Janny MT, Frequently asked questions (dimensions, stacking, transport, pricing tiers, cold room, pre-cooling, re-adaptation, gas analysers, organic use, professional use): https://jannymt.com/faq.htm?lng=en
Janny MT, Research and development (aims, settings not yet defined for all produce, enquiries for new products): https://jannymt.com/atmosphere_controlee/recherche_developpement.htm?lng=en
Bloopy Durians, Bentong, Malaysia: Stephen Loke's own field tests on durian and mangosteen in Janny MT modules (unpublished farm results): https://www.bloopydurians.com
Stephen Loke of AgritourismSuccess.com, whose farm is featured in Bloomberg News and Asahi Shimbun. Stephen is a representative and distributor of Janny MT through Bloopy Durians. Storage times are Janny MT's published "up to" figures unless marked as Bloopy Durians field tests; results vary with crop, variety, maturity, cold-room conditions and handling. This article is general information, not legal or financial advice.
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