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Enhancing Potato Packing Efficiency with HarvestEye at G. Visser & Sons

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Industry

Potato

Challenge

G. Visser & Sons aimed to enhance their packing line performance by reducing human errors and improving grading quality control. They initially attempted to develop their own optical system but needed a more reliable and quantifiable solution.

Results

G. Visser & Sons successfully implemented HarvestEye, finding the daily data reporting insightful. The tool has helped them maintain high-quality standards and optimize returns for each lot of potatoes. The company plans to expand the use of HarvestEye across more packing lines and harvesting machinery.

Key Product & Crop

HarvestEye 2.0, Potato

'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 quantifiably evaluate shrink, reducing the impact of potential human errors — such as how fatigue can lead to inconsistent performance.'

Adam Jay

Chief Operating Officer at G. Visser & Sons

G Visser Packing Facility

About G. Visser & Sons

G. Visser & Sons is a family-owned and operated potato grower and packer based in Orwell Cove, Prince Edward Island. Established in 1954, the farm is known for its high-quality, red-soil-grown potatoes and offers a variety of types, including Round White, Russet, Yellow Fleshed, and Red Skinned. They distribute their produce across Canada, the U.S., and the Caribbean.

The Challenge

G. Visser & Sons, a renowned family-owned potato grower and packer in Orwell Cove, Prince Edward Island, faced the challenge of enhancing their packing line performance. They were looking to reduce human errors, especially those caused by fatigue, and improve grading quality control to maintain their high standards. Although they attempted to develop their own optical system, they needed a more reliable and quantifiable solution.

The Solution

The team at G. Visser & Sons discovered HarvestEye, a machine learning-driven crop insights tool, at Fruit Logistica in Berlin. HarvestEye offered the passive real-time monitoring they needed to evaluate shrink and reduce human errors. Adam Jay, Chief Operating Officer at G. Visser & Sons, stated, "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 quantifiably evaluate shrink, reducing the impact of potential human errors — such as how fatigue can lead to inconsistent performance."

The Results

After implementing HarvestEye, G. Visser & Sons found the daily data reporting highly insightful. The tool has helped them maintain high-quality standards and optimize returns for each lot of potatoes. Harry Tinson, General Manager at HarvestEye, remarked, "working with G Visser enables us to broaden our understanding of how HarvestEye can support growers, packers and processors, particularly in respect to 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." The company plans to expand the use of HarvestEye across more packing lines and harvesting machinery.