“First asparagus robot that harvests three rows at the same time”

The Dutch high-tech start-up Cerescon will present the first asparagus harvest robot in the world that harvests three rows at the same time during the Expo-SE 2017 on 22 and 23 November. After a trial period during the past season with a version that harvests one row, Cerescon will present a prototype of the final machine during the ‘Spargelmesse,’ the largest asparagus fair in the world. During the fair, Cerescon will accept the so-called Innovationspreis, a price awarded annually by the fair for the most promising product that will result in the most benefits for users. The presentation will take place immediately after the fair has been opened.

National and international growers who are interested will be given the opportunity during the fair to sign up for a conversation with Cerescon, so that they can ask their specific questions and so that they can have their specific pay-back time calculated for their personal situation. When interested in purchasing the machine, they will also be given the opportunity to sign the contract. The possibility to buy the machine will take place per country in the order of registration.

In hall 2, stand 2 / N - 16, Ad Vermeer, CTO and inventor of the machine will give presentations with technical explanations on both days of the fair. On 22 November the first presentation will start at 12 o’clock, followed by presentations at 4 and 6 o’clock. On 23 November the presentations will be held at 10 o’clock, and then at 12, 2 and 4 o’clock. During the presentations, Ad Vermeer will give technical explanations on how the asparagus harvest robot works, and he is available to answer technical questions. 

According to the manufacturer, the three-row machine:

Last spring, Cerescon presented the one-row version of the machine amid public interest from growers from the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Peru and the international press. During the 2017 harvesting season, this version of the machine was tested, and in the 2018 season, the first asparagus will be commercially picked by a Cerescon asparagus harvesting robot. Further extensive application testing has also been planned, which is part of a three-year research conducted with the Wageningen University and Research, LimGroup and a number of major growers in the Netherlands. The goal of the application tests is to compare machine picking to manual picking: this way, the exact figures of the additional yield and higher quality of machine picking can be shown. 

As the first company in the world, Cerescon has successfully proven the feasibility of an automatic selective asparagus harvest machine, according to the company. Because of that, the young company is the first in the world to make a selective harvesting machine available commercially. Not just asparagus growers are interested in Cerescon, as evidenced by the other innovation prices Cerescon won in the past months: