Organifarms tests picking robots for strawberries

The robot, called "Berry", is designed not only to handle the basic harvesting workload, but also the quality control and packaging of the fruit.

The Constance-based start-up Organifarms has developed a picking robot for use with strawberries in greenhouses, as the website Top Agrar first reported. It bears the name "Berry". It should be ready for the market this year. At some point, it should also be suitable for vertical farming systems: These are halls with hydroponic shelves around ten meters high in which plants are grown.

The picking robot is intended to counteract the major labor shortage in the industry. In future, the robot could carry the basic load of the harvest. When the season comes to a head, people could help out. The company believes this would save between 20 and 30 percent on labor costs. In addition to harvesting, the robot will also take over the quality control and packaging of the fruit. Intelligent software will help the robot to achieve good results even under difficult conditions, as Organifarms explains.

Organifarms develops various farm robots for the automation of labor-intensive processes. These include not only harvesting, but also monitoring and plant care in protected fruit and vegetable cultivation. Dominik Feiden, Marian Bolz, Hannah Brown and Mario Schäfer founded the company. It recently received funding from the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) in cooperation with Landwirtschaftliche Rentenbank. In January, the company received a grant of 800,000 euros for its innovation in the field of agriculture.