There are more companies who are involved with optical sorting, but no company met Kamp Agro's desires: "The optical sorters we knew linked reading the potatoes and sorting. It is important to us that the right size is sorted with a high capacity."
There is now an optical sorter at Kamp Agro in Rutten, the Optica CS. This was developed by the Research & Development department of Schouten Sorting Equipment in Kampen. The Optica CS is a camera sorting machine that works with cameras. According to Bram Jansen the Optica CS is an innovation seed growers can't avoid: "They can make money with this. There are also other added advantages. A lot of data can be obtained that seed growers can use, such as amounts and an estimate of weight. An added advantage is that the Optica CS removes clumps and such."
To heighten the capacity of the manual reading, the Optica CS is provided with clump detection. "We are still busy sorting for aberrant shapes and blemishes (half potatoes, growth tears). The only reading that would remain is the problem parties with mange and Rhizoctonia. In most cases after control is sufficient."
Recently, around thirty fellow growers visited Joachim and Laurent Kamp at Kamp Agro in Rutten and the OPtica CS was demonstrated. They viewed this visual sorter, impressed. In general they were unanimous in their agreement that this is a 'good system that can obtain a lot of capacity'. Or as one agriculturalist put it: "It is the accuracy that is impressive! It is a large investment, but it is a brilliant new development. In this way we can better remove the larger potatoes and keep the smaller ones. I believe this is the future."