Norwegian firm plans to open hub in West Midlands to serve new growers in 2025
Saga Robotics has announced plans to introduce its Thorvald robots to more UK berry farms as the 2024 strawberry-picking season comes to a close.
In 2024, Saga’s fleet of robots operated at nine major farms – across Kent, the South of England, and Scotland – treating up to one in 10 tabletop strawberries grown in the UK.
Thorvald uses UV-C light to control powdery mildew, the prevailing fungal disease in British horticulture.
Looking ahead to the 2025 season, Saga plans to open a new hub in the West Midlands, allowing the business to serve more growers.
Meanwhile, the Norwegian company’s existing customer base is expanding the area treated by Thorvald on their farms, and new growers are signing up in these locations (Kent, the South of England, and Scotland).
One of the UK producers using Thorvald is Chambers. COO Salih Hodzhov said: “Our interest in using UV-C to control powdery mildew was driven by our ambitions on sustainability. We are very focused on reducing pesticide usage as one of the ways of achieving our sustainability goals.”
He added: “The results this year speak for themselves. We have excellent control of powdery mildew where we are using Saga’s robots.
“I am actually now surprised how quickly our business is adopting this technology; it isn’t as difficult as I expected. We have the results we needed to see, and as a result are now scaling faster.
“In my opinion, if you grow strawberries on a tabletop, you must have this technology.”
Meanwhile, Allen Innes, farm manager of Angus Soft Fruits grower LM Porter, reported a 15 per cent rise in production due to lower mildew levels.
As well as strawberries, Saga is scaling rapidly in the US wine market and said it has plans for significant growth with leading Californian wine producers in 2025.
Indeed, Saga’s co-founder Pål Johan From relocated to the US in 2023 to drive the business forward and support vineyard customers.
On the back of this, Saga is also in discussion with a number of leading UK vineyards.
