inaho Europe B.V., a subsidiary of inaho Inc. (headquarters: Kanagawa, Japan), hereafter “inaho”, has been undergoing trials of its snack tomato (loose cherry tomato) harvesting robot in the Netherlands.
inaho’s tomato harvesting robot started trials with Dutch growers in May 2023, and the cooperated grower agreed to pay the fees for the robot’s harvesting performance since November 2023.
The latest trial in June-July 2024 just finished in the Netherlands and inaho’s robot demonstrated its improvements and performance.
Improved harvesting speed:
Compared to last year, the robot has doubled its harvesting speed in similar conditions, thanks to a new chip, new camera and improved AI software.
Less mistakes:
Improved image recognition has decreased the number of errors associated with dropping tomatoes and picking green ones.
More practical body:
Moreover, its body has been slimmed down by approximately 17%, making it more practical in the greenhouse for avoiding damage to the plants and fitting smaller lanes.
Collaborations with future-looking Dutch growers
The owner and grower Nick Duijvestijn from Kwekerij Duijvestijn who closely cooperates with inaho says “Preparing for the higher labour costs and the labour shortage is one of our priorities and cooperation with inaho gives us an opportunity to get used to working with harvesting robots. inaho’s robot is easy to operate for the employees and our tomatoes are harvested safely without any damage to the fruits and plants.”
He actively embraced innovations and demonstrated a strong commitment to improving production efficiency through forward-thinking initiatives.
inaho is actively looking for partner growers for commercialization
inaho’s COO Sohya Ohyama emphasizes the collaborative vision of inaho’s robotics:
”We want to expand the scales of our trials to get ready for commercializing our robots and we are actively looking for some growers with a clear vision for the future. The growers can take advantage of becoming familiar with collaborative operations with robots at an early stage and getting ready for rising labour costs and labour shortages. We are willing to work together with growers to develop a concrete business model and robot arrangements to maximize the co-performance between humans and the robots.”
Growers who collaborate with inaho at an early stage can be offered benefits such as early discounts and priority use.
If you would like to know more details about the latest development of the robot and the result of the latest trial in the Netherlands, please contact us and we will respond to you shortly for more details and to discuss potential collaboration.