Gaining control over harvest data and labour expenses

The orchard management app allows pickers to easily record their own progress and helps drivers find full bins via GPS technology. “It has always been our mission to help growers take control of their harvest data”, CEO Henrietta Child of AgPick says.

The technology was developed in South-Australia. “It was clear to us that productivity data was not always available nor transparent from labour hire providers”, Ms Child explains. “We saw that as an opportunity to help growers to be more organised with their labour, to better regulate control and to deliver better data. That was our focus.”

First big customer

Very early on, there was interest in the technology from growers in different parts of Australia. “We met a large berry grower in Queensland. We did our initial work with them. Not long after that, Perfection Fresh took up the system for a berry farm. That was our first big customer.”

Managing director Nic Hansen of Cherries Tasmania Orchards described his operation’s positive experience with the AgPick system at the Fruit Growers Tasmania conference in Hobart last year. He explained how his organisation had used the technology to track progress and manage the efficiency of his harvest workforce.

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For simple or more complex processes

The app works with any Android phone. It doesn’t rely on pickers having data contracts or sophisticated phones. “For pickers, it’s as simple as pressing ‘start’, ‘break’ or ‘finish’ to record their activity”, Ms Child says.

AgPick discovered that no two growers do things exactly the same, and established a way of generating different work flows on the scanners. “So, growers can do different things, depending on their process. We’ve been building that over the last few years, to give growers flexibility, and use it for simple or more complex processes.”

We are helping to keep the piece rate low

The scanner captures time, with start and finish times, and breaks of a picker. The technology captures the productivity of a picker, and the grades of fruit. It is able to show the quality of the fruit, and possible defects. “You can record that someone is not doing the right thing and is generating quality issues for example”, Ms Child points out.

More focus on productivity

This kind of information has become increasingly important for growers. “Wages have gone up significantly, and there has been a tightening of legal requirements in Australia. Growers have a much greater focus on efficiency and productivity. With AgPick, they can see who are the best pickers, and who they have to take action with. Growers can decide who to send home early, and who to keep on. We are helping to keep the piece rate low.”

“Our technology records data in an automated way, and uploads the data in a data-base, which is stored in the cloud. Growers can see the information real-time in a portal, that also tells them what the yield is on a block. So, they can see much earlier what is happening.”

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Quallity of the product

AgPick is currently being used for raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, cherries, table grapes, apples and citrus. “We haven’t found a crop that we couldn’t do yet”, Ms Child says. “It is really about process. If there is a willingness to create the process, where we can collect the data, it works very well. It doesn’t really matter what the product is.”

Once we set up a farm, people are flexible and can add their own uses

Not only labour is recorded. With apples picked into bins for instance, AgPick recognises the bin as an asset in the system. “We can report what’s in the bin, the quality of the produce and where it’s stored. This information can be scanned in the field or the packhouse,” Ms Child says.

As simple as possible

The technology is also being used in the packhouse for managing piece-rates, for packing punnets and putting lids on punnets. “The industry has a complicated, flexible workforce”, Ms Child says. “Some of our customers use the technology for other work than picking. And people come and go a lot. So, we try to keep the product as simple as possible. People can learn how to interact with it easily. There is not a lot of time needed for training.”

AgPick is available on the Google Play Store. “Once we set up a farm, people are flexible and can add their own uses, set their farm blocks up, and work out with us what they want to do. For outside, growers will need a rugged phone, and these are all Android.” Currently, AgPick is only used in Australia. “But exporting our technology is definitely on our radar for the next twelve months.”

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Reasonably priced

Ms Child emphasises that AgPick is reasonably priced. “We charge an annual license fee per phone. We like to keep things simple for growers. Our customers say that it more than pays for itself in their annual budget. One of my berry-customers told me recently that it is saving her employing two fulltime casuals. That is a far cry from what we charge them.”

The company always answers the phone, Ms Child says. “There is no point saying ‘Sorry, we’re not working yet’. We pride ourselves in our customer service.”