AI forecasts help berry growers plan the harvest

Strawberry growers have only a short window to pick ripe fruit. Book too few people and berries can spoil; bring in too many and costs mount.

UK company FruitCast uses images from phones, drones or vehicle cameras to forecast harvests. Its software combines those pictures with weather and past yields. Cambridge Enterprise, which helped fund the business, says it now forecasts more than a fifth of the UK strawberry crop.

FruitCast told the BBC its predictions come within 10% of the amount actually picked a week ahead, widening to 17% three weeks ahead. Those are the company’s figures, rather than an independent assessment of savings.

Angus Soft Fruits has worked with the firm. Its operations director, Neill Finlayson, reports significant progress but says the industry is still some way from a fully integrated forecasting system.

Driscoll’s also confirmed that some of its UK growers have used the technology. Better forecasts could give growers something valuable: more time to organise the people needed to bring a perishable crop home.

Sources

• BBC — The AI telling farmers when to harvest
• Cambridge Enterprise — FruitCast: Forecasting made simple