Cerescon, the Dutch developer of the Sparter, a selective white asparagus harvesting robot, has spent this season demonstrating the one-row self-propelled unit to growers in the Netherlands and Germany.
Asparagus spears detected by a sub-surface sensor are cut by an integrated double harvesting robot. Claimed benefits include the 50% reduction in harvesting costs; good news for growers struggling to recruit staff to harvest the crop manually.
‘Manual harvesters are even thinner on the ground this season, and grower interest in the Sparter has doubled since the outbreak of the coronavirus’ explains Mark van Lier, international sales manager at Cerescon.
Requiring just a single operator, the company reckons the Sparter, which is transported between fields on the back of a trailer, can replace around 25 manual workers.
The Dutch company has just received a €3 million cash injection from a private investor to develop the prototype to the production stage. The plan is to make up to 150 machines a year within the next five years.
