A harvesting robot for strawberries is still in development. Tom Coen, CEO of Octinion, indicates they are currently working on the newest generation with a grab that’s more compact and quicker than the first harvesting robot. “Our next step is that the robot doesn’t just pick strawberries, but other soft fruit as well. The newest harvesting robot should be suitable for all berries, which is why we made the grab smaller.”
He knows there’s demand for such a robot for picking soft fruit. “The manual cost of picking different types of berries is, on average, around the same level. There are many stories that this would differ per country, but on average, this cost is approximately the same everywhere. The picking cost of an average berry is about 1 to 2 cents. We therefore don’t offer this solution to be cost-saving, but as a solution to a shortage of labour.”
Urgent
He continues: “The fruit areas are growing in various countries, but there aren’t enough people to do the harvesting. For example, in Peru, the area of blueberries has grown enormously in recent years. The people there are looking for solutions. There’s also demand from the US. For us, the UK and the US are currently the most urgent markets. In the UK they’ll have labour shortages due to the Brexit, and labour costs will increase considerably in the US in coming years. There’s also interest in the harvesting robots in the Benelux. However, demand is less urgent here.” For more information:
Tom Coen
Octinion bvba
Interleuvenlaan 46
B-3001 Heverlee-Leuven
Tom Coen
Octinion bvba
Interleuvenlaan 46
B-3001 Heverlee-Leuven
