The professional jury of GreenTech has named the GRoW tomato harvesting robot by Ridder and MetoMotion as the winner of the Robot Challenge. According to the jury, the robot platform has a great impact on the horticultural sector and has the highest chance of being successfully implemented in the market.

GRoW was officially presented to the sector last week during the GreenTech trade show in Amsterdam. The robotic platform was developed to reduce harvesting costs, increase picking quality and to become less dependent on available labor. It is the first robot with two arms that can bidirectionally harvest vine tomatoes and automates the handling of the produce in crates.

“We are delighted with the Robot Challenge win and the verdict of the expert jury. It is an important recognition for this meaningful innovation,” says Joep van den Bosch, Chief Innovation Officer at Ridder. “The robots of the GreenTech Robot Challenge play an important role in successfully scaling up sustainable food production worldwide. It is good to see a lot of development taking place and we are proud of the recognition of our work,” said Adi Nir, CEO at MetoMotion.

GRoW is committed to saving 80% of picking labor in the greenhouse. Currently, the robot is at work at two large Dutch tomato growers. More information is available at ridder.com/grow,  here interested growers can already reserve their own GRoW robots.