New Tomatoes for Machine Harvest Could Be Game Changer

Posted by Paul Rusnak|April 29, 2024

Manually picking tomatoes has always gone hand in hand for growers of the crop. The tedious task for farmworkers could be getting some relief soon though. University of Florida researchers recently released two tomato cultivars meant for machine harvest. These varieties are available to Florida growers now. Will the swift adoption of automation follow to fruition? Maybe.

According to UF/IFAS tomato breeder Jessica Chitwood-Brown, the new machine-harvestable tomatoes were decades in the making. And with farm labor being stretched so thin, the arrival of fruit that can be harvested mechanically comes at a crucial time. “We can see examples of the effort to mechanize and alleviate the pressure from the lack of labor in packinghouses and other parts of the supply chain,” she says. “However, field production and harvesting in particular have a real challenge. Being able to harvest fresh market tomatoes with a machine would have a huge impact on growers and the labor problems.”

The next step for Chitwood-Brown is to make sure machine harvest is a viable option. “We aren’t all the way there yet,” she adds. “There is research that still needs to be done, but with the release of these new cultivars, we are much closer than even a few years ago.”

Michael Schadler, Executive VP of the Florida Tomato Exchange, is expressing cautious optimism. “We won’t sacrifice quality or taste for our customers, and growers can’t afford to sacrifice yield or disease-management systems in the field,” he says. “The new varieties – and any machine harvester that is developed – must be able to balance those factors.”

Even though Schadler says large-scale trials are being conducted with the new varieties, more time will be needed. “We won’t be ready to begin testing machine harvester prototypes until at least next year,” he says.