Global demand for products such as blueberries is increasing and growers are keen to lengthen their supply windows, some looking to reach 365 days a year. Of course, the problem with berries is their short shelf life.
In an effort to help growers and exporters get closer to these goals, AgroFresh recently partnered with Aerobotics and Neolithics to expand their FreshCloud digital ecosystem. Aerobotics specialises in orchard and pack house analytics and Neolithics is a pioneer in AI-powered quality inspection.
© AgroFresh
"We aim to collect as much data as possible to provide an intelligent hub for both pre and post-harvest, enabling our customers to make smart decisions," comments Bradford Warner from AgroFresh. "We want that data to be displayed in an easy way. This is valuable business intelligence for the fresh produce industry."
Using FreshCloud growers can predict how the harvest may look and make informed decisions on the harvest and potential markets.
"The goal is to empower informed decisions that growers, packers and shippers can take action in the supply chain: how best to store produce, how long it can be shipped for and who the preferred final customer should be based on data-driven quality. The more information we have the better the decisions we can make."
© AgroFresh
Another big problem in the fresh produce sector is food waste, so growers and exporters need to be more efficient.
"Blueberries and avocados have a high percentage of waste; it can up to 30-40%. The cost of producing these fruits is high. We have the ability to vastly improve this; it is one of our goals. It also addresses hunger and lack of nutrition, the world needs more fresh produce, but the amount of land is limited, so we need to be more efficient in how we handle the produce we grow."
AgroFresh have done significant analysis and primary research for growers, producers and retailers.
"This is a big opportunity, at the moment there is not enough data available across the supply chain, we need better data-driven tools. We also need more data in the pre-harvest stage too, this where the partnership with Aerobotics will help us by collecting more data by just using a phone camera and using machine learning to derive efficient insights on the crop in FreshCloud at an early stage. The partnership with Neolithics, on the other hand, will enhance our data-rich insights post-harvest for quality control and assurance. Previously, that was very labour intensive involving only a very small percentage of fruit tested. We can now do more tests more broadly and with better, consistent evaluation."
"Machine learning is a real game changer for the produce industry given that not only are there many different types of fruit, but also many different varieties of each fruit. The information can be used between the different fruits and different varieties then be fine tuned for specific buyers in FreshCloud."
For more information:
Cécile Canivet
AgroFresh
Tel: +34 648 271 477
[email protected]
www.agrofresh.com
