Hectre, a fruit software and AI company from New Zealand, has extended it’s US coverage with California becoming its latest on the ground location.
“We’ve had such an outstanding response from the US market, so it made good sense to invest further and put more people on the ground. California was chosen as the latest location for Hectre, as we’ve already received high levels of enquiry for both our orchard management software and Spectre, our fruit quality control AI for fruit size and color estimation,” says Hectre CEO Matty Blomfield.
With fertile soils and year-round warm temperatures, California is the second largest producer of citrus in the US, pumping out more than 3.2 million tons of fruit in an average year.
Initially developed to empower apple growers and warehouses, Spectre has now been optimised for oranges, lemons and mandarins. The AI solution can size citrus as soon as it’s in the bin, or as it arrives into receiving, without the need for expensive equipment. A photo taken from a standard iPad or iPhone is all Spectre needs to detect an impressive sample size and serve up accurate fruit size estimations within seconds, enabling warehouses to optimise their storage, packing and selling decisions.
With better data, comes better insights, and high demand is expected from Californian citrus warehouses seeking early size and colour data.
Spectre detection in action as it sizes lemons. The affordable AI tool has now been optimised for oranges, lemons and mandarins and limes are next.
Britton Taipa leads the Hectre charge in California. “I’m extremely excited about bringing the benefits of Hectre’s technology to the hardworking California fruit growers and warehouse teams. The growth potential is huge.”
Hectre’s orchard management software has been transforming orchards and fruit farms across New Zealand, Australia, Washington and New York, providing affordable access to simple to use transformative tech. With requests coming from apple, citrus, pear, avocado and cherry growers, plus packhouses and fruit warehouses, Hectre continues to expand its fruit type coverage and global interest continues to grow.
“We undertook a review of recent enquiries and looking at just the past month, we’ve received enquiries from South Africa, the US, Chile, Canada, Denmark, Zambia, the UK, and Italy. Spectre in particular, is creating excitement among large growers and fruit warehouses working in the citrus and apple sectors. Their need for easy and affordable access to early data on fruit size and colour, to support improved storage, packing and selling decisions, is exactly why we developed Spectre,” adds Blomfield.
Hectre’s computer vision AI solution, Spectre, pre-sizing apples on receiving.
Hectre will undertake a capital raise later this year to support ongoing growth and development initiatives and were recently named double finalists at the prestigious 2021 NZ Hi-Tech Awards for Most Innovative Hi-Tech Agritech Solution and Hi-Tech Start-Up Company of the Year.
For more information:
Kylie Hall
Hectre
Tel: +64 27419 8322
Email: kylie@hectre.com
www.hectre.com