Organifarms tests picking robot for strawberries

The robot, named "Berry," will not only handle the basic load of harvesting, but also quality control and packaging of the fruit.

The Constance-based startup Organifarms has developed a picking robot for use with strawberries in greenhouses, as the website Top Agrar first reported. It goes by the name "Berry." This is expected to be ready for the market before the end of this year. At some point, it should also be suitable for vertical farming facilities: These are halls with hydroponic shelves about ten meters high in which plants grow.

The picking robot is intended to counteract the major labor shortage in the industry. In the future, the robot could carry the basic load of the harvest. Then, when the season comes to a head, humans could help. That would save labor costs of between 20 and 30 percent, the company believes. In addition to harvesting, the robot would also handle quality control and packing of the fruit. Intelligent software will help the robot achieve good results even under difficult conditions, Organifarms explains.

Organifarms develops various farm robots for the automation of labor-intensive processes. This includes 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. Most recently, it received funding from the German 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.