A new robotics model developed by Warwick University could prove the salvation of the UK mushroom industry within a year.
Andrew Tinsley, responsible for the mushroom sector at the Horticultural Development Council, revealed: “The new robotic harvesting model is different to that developed by HRI and the Silsoe Research Institute in the 1990s.
“The crop will now come to the robot rather than the other way round. In recent years robotic systems have become more sophisticated, more reliable and cheaper - it is now a question of developing a practical system through trials.”
This development is part of a fast and practical response by the UK mushroom industry to the findings of HRI Warwick in a report commissioned by the HDC. Growers aim to meet with their counterparts from other horticulture sectors to discuss and analyse whether promotional lessons can be learnt to give mushrooms a higher profile.
Within six months an independent benchmarking exercise will be under way to provide an accurate overview of production costs across growers whose methods and operations differ widely. The HDC hopes that the principles of benchmarking might be extended to cover competitive sources such as the Netherlands and Poland, which it highlighted in its report as posing a threat to the UK sector.
The HDC survey found that the UK growers’ share of their domestic market only accounts for some 53 per cent of sales (55,000 tonnes), that prices are static and that there are fewer growers with less potential capacity.
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