Tracking the Potato Size, Shape, and Variation of the Packing Lines

Machine-learning driven crop insights tool HarvestEye has partnered with one of Prince Edward Island’s (PEI) prominent potato growers, G Visser & Sons, in the farm’s continued mission to provide the highest quality produce for the North American market.
HarvestEye is being used by G Visser & Sons to track the size, shape, and variation of potatoes on one of their packing lines, which processes 226,7 tons of produce every week. The system’s goal is to enhance the grading process’s quality control while assisting the sorters on the conveyor belt with their physical labor.
HarvestEye is an affordable way to provide visibility on root crop harvests, which presently include potatoes and onions, through an internet portal. The technology can be installed on harvesting machinery for crop lifting, grading equipment, and handheld systems for in-field test digs.
“Working closely with one of PEI’s top potato-growing families, our relationship with G Visser & Sons provides an invaluable opportunity within the fresh produce market. It enables us to broaden our understanding of how HarvestEye can support growers, packers, and processors, particularly concerning the challenges pertinent to PEI and other North American potato-growing regions, from rich red soils unique to the island to tough conditions amid fluctuating temperature ranges. Having visited the G Visser & Sons team to begin our partnership, we saw a tremendous opportunity to forge a lasting relationship, as the business looks to innovate its operations while remaining true to its family values of sustainable farming,” Harry Tinson, general manager at HarvestEye, said.
G Visser & Sons wants to increase the ROI (return on investment) and integrate HarvestEye into more of its processes as the collaboration grows. To help evaluate crop progression, anticipate yield and size, and help with harvest scheduling and other related tasks, this might involve setting up additional lines in its pack plants, installing in the field harvesting machinery, and using the handheld device for test digs.
“While we proudly rely on human intuition with our team of quality sorters, we were looking to implement a system that could provide a passive real-time monitoring tool to more quantifiable evaluate shrink, reducing the impact of potential human errors, such as how fatigue can lead to inconsistent performance. After initially attempting to develop our optical system, we discovered HarvestEye while attending Fruit Logistica and were impressed by how the system could apply to our needs. Having now become accustomed to the system in operation on one of our packing lines, we have found HarvestEye’s daily reporting to be incredibly insightful. It is a tool that we believe can help us continue to provide the high-quality products that our customers require and the data to help ensure that we optimize the return for the grower of each lot of potatoes,” Adam Jay, chief operating officer at G Visser & Sons, added.
“PEI is integral to the North American potato industry and by building relationships with established growers such as G Visser & Sons, who have a deep-rooted understanding of the growing landscape, we can continue to innovate the hardware and software elements of our product to offer even more bespoke support to customers. As HarvestEye continues to expand into the North American market, we are committed to interacting with more users on the ground through partnership and distributor relationships, enabling more opportunities and flexibility to trial, feedback, and adopt the system,” Vidyanath (Vee) Gururajan, managing director of HarvestEye, concluded.