The REIH has published a new generic protocol for evaluating strawberry harvesting technologies, designed to support the evaluation of these innovations under Quebec production conditions.
Why an evaluation protocol?
The automation of harvesting is generating growing interest in the strawberry industry. Harvesting fruit for the fresh market remains a particularly labor-intensive process, largely due to the fragility of strawberries and the need to pick them at the optimal stage of ripeness. In a context marked by labor shortages and rising production costs, automated harvesting technologies could represent an attractive option for businesses.
The significance of this issue is also illustrated by economic data from the sector. According to a technical-economic study by CECPA covering the year 2019, employee wages accounted for about 45 percent of the total production costs of the average Quebec company. Harvesting alone accounted for 60 to 67% of wage expenses, depending on the production system. These results highlight the significant weight of harvesting in production costs and the value of evaluating solutions that could reduce reliance on labor.
To better understand the potential of these technologies and prepare for their evaluation under Quebec production conditions (one of the levers mentioned by producers to accelerate technology adoption), a generic protocol dedicated to strawberry harvesting technologies was developed as part of Axis 3 of the 3AH Strategy. The protocol was drafted by CIEL, while the project is jointly coordinated by REIH and the Quebec Strawberry and Raspberry Producers Association (APFFQ).
A Common Method for Comparing Technologies
Although mechanization offers promising prospects, the available technologies are often developed abroad and remain difficult to evaluate in the Quebec context. The generic protocol therefore establishes a common, rigorous, and reproducible approach that allows for an objective comparison of a harvesting technology’s performance with that of manual harvesting.
The proposed approach begins with an assessment of the technology’s compatibility with the test site, the production system, and the target varieties. It then calls for a comparative trial under real-world conditions that can be adapted to different production systems, whether in the open field, in a greenhouse, or in a soilless system under cover.
The selected criteria cover agronomic, technical, and technical-economic performance. They will make it possible, in particular, to evaluate:
The protocol will also make it possible to compare the costs of robotic harvesting and manual harvesting, and then estimate the potential return on investment for the technology.
The next step is to test this protocol under Quebec production conditions.
A base ready for future tests
The next phase of the project involves testing this protocol under Quebec production conditions using appropriate harvesting technology. However, this phase will have to wait until a solution that is sufficiently advanced, available, and compatible with Quebec’s production realities can be identified. In fact, several strawberry harvesting robots are still in the development phase or have not yet reached a level of commercial maturity that would allow for their purchase, rental, or deployment in Quebec.
Nevertheless, efforts are actively continuing. The REIH and the APFFQ maintain regular contact with developers of strawberry-harvesting robots, whether they are new entrants or companies that have been monitored for several years. These discussions make it possible to track technological developments, assess their level of commercial maturity, and identify those that could potentially be tested as part of the project.
The generic protocol thus serves as a methodological foundation ready for implementation. As soon as a technology that meets the project’s needs becomes available, the protocol can be adapted into a specific protocol to conduct field trials and generate reliable reference data for Quebec strawberry growers.
Download the generic protocol and data compilation form: https://zoneagtech.ca/reih/#outils-et-ressources
