British company has growth plans for its crop insight tool in the Nordic region
HarvestEye has secured its first distributorship in Finland.
The British machine learning-driven crop insights tool will be distributed in the Nordic country by Antti Hintikka of U2 Online Oy, an expert in project managing and distributing agri-tech products to the country’s potato and onion markets.
After a period of trialling HarvestEye 2.0 units to better understand the possibilities of the system and gather customer feedback, Hintikka will now be responsible for distributorship of the HarvestEye 2.0 and HarvestEye Handheld systems to growers, packers and processors across Finland.
Fitting to harvesting or grading equipment, HarvestEye 2.0 is a cost-effective method to deliver visibility, via an online portal and daily reports, on the size, shape and mapping variability of potatoes and onions.
The refreshed system delivers faster crop measurement and more accurate data collection, with capabilities to operate in more challenging conditions including low evening sun, according to the company.
Hintikka will also be distributing HarvestEye’s accompanying handheld version, which uses the power and data insight of the system to allow customers to count and size crops during pre-harvest test digs.
‘Vast experience’
Harry Tinson, general manager at HarvestEye, said: “Partnering with Antti was a logical choice for us at HarvestEye. He brings vast experience and a presence in the Finnish potato and onion markets, that will enable us to best showcase the harvest insights system to more customers.
“The growing conditions in Finland can be largely different to other European markets in which we operate, so it was vital that we could secure a distributor who could help customers on the ground and enhance their harvesting operations.”
HarvestEye will complement Hintikka’s work as project manager for the HZPC/Agritask Decision Support System (DSS), a precision agriculture platform that will now be able to utilise HarvestEye’s data insights to validate the success of crop management decisions taken through DSS.
Hintikka said: “Based on the experience gained from trialling HarvestEye last season in Finland, we found that the system provides crucial extra data for growers and potato companies at the moment of harvest. It completes the entire loop of information gathering to achieve comprehensive agronomical optimisation and precise insight into the incoming crop supply.”
Vidyanath Gururajan, managing director of HarvestEye, said: “This distributorship agreement with Antti marks an exciting time of growth for HarvestEye as part of our targeted expansion into the Scandinavian markets. As we continue to enhance HarvestEye’s capabilities, we are looking to secure further distributorship and partnerships that will enable us to be accessible to more customers so they can trial, feedback and adopt the system.”
