This fall Suffolk added yet another business to its growing list.

Royal Fumigation, a New Castle, Del.-based company, has opened a state-of-the-art fumigation facility on Finney Avenue. The Suffolk location, which has easy access to Routes 337, 460 and 58, will serve the Norfolk-area ports.

Royal protects and treats fresh fruit and vegetables, museum artifacts, munitions and military material, electronic equipment, stored products, logs and timber, wood packing material such as pallets and crates, and raw products for pharmaceuticals.

“Our goal is to be the leader in developing and providing high quality, innovative fumigation and pest control services to help protect the world’s forestry and agricultural products,” said Phil Mullen, commercial account specialist with Royal. “We achieve that goal by ensuring that the highest standards of safety are met and that all of our fumigations are in full compliance with USDA and international standards.”

At this facility, Royal fumigates logs as well as containerized and bulk commodities, which could include logs and lumber, wood packing material, tobacco, cotton, perishables, fresh fruit, cocoa beans and other stored products, Mullen said. The facility’s off-site services include full-service maritime pest control for ships, docks and warehouses. Royal also customizes services for food and other facility warehouse programs, he said.

Royal has developed technological breakthroughs in processes and equipment, according to a press release. For example, Royal is able to fumigate fresh fruit, including table grapes and citrus fruits, within very narrow temperature ranges without delay or damage. Also,the protocols used are tailored to the temperature and maintenance requirements of each product.

Working with product experts, Royal learns about how each product it treats will react to different conditions and devises handling and treatment practices that will protect it. This attention to detail has led to related technological advances, such as RapidCool, Royal’s process for re-cooling large volumes of perishables after their temperature has been increased for fumigation, and services to heat logs and timber prior to fumigation, according to the release.

Royal also invented patented equipment that increases the safety and efficiency of its fumigation chambers by permitting a uniform extraction of fumigant gases after the fumigation. Because the company intends to expand in response to the needs of customers and area ports, it has purchased 12 acres on the Suffolk site. Currently, in addition to the fumigation buildings, five acres are set aside for short-term storage of containers. There also is a soil treatment area for cleaning containers that have held military equipment, tile, auto parts and more, Mullen said.

According to the company Web site, www.royalfume.com, Royal is a USDA-approved quarantine fumigator and one of the founding members of the Food Protection Alliance (FPA), whose members strive provide fumigation and related food safety management services of unparalleled quality to customers in North America.

The company, which was founded to meet a need for quality quarantine fumigation at East Coast ports, has provided specialized fumigation services in the mid-Atlantic region of the U.S. since 1988.

To find out more about the new Royal Fumigation facility in Suffolk call 539-9522.