New robot could be solution for farmers hit by Brexit fruit picker shortage
British farmers have been presented with a solution to beat the shortage of fruit pickers post-Brexit - hiring a robot.
The machine, developed by Dogtooth Technologies, is said to be able to harvest to 200kg strawberries a day - and it doesn't need a visa or a toilet break.
Even before Brexit, farmers had been complaining that they were finding it increasingly hard to recruit labour to pick their summer harvests.
And last week a party of growers - including wine producers - attended a demonstration of robotic fruit picking organised by Produced In Kent to learn how the robots might help them in future.
Founder and CEO of Dogtooth Technologies, Dr Duncan Robertson, said: ”Go back a few hundred years, before the Agricultural Revolution, and farming used to employ about one person for every hectare.
"Now across the farming sector, the average is one person for every 100 hectares - except in horticulture, where it remains stubbornly at one per hectare, the same as in the 17th century.
The machine, developed by Dogtooth Technologies, is said to be able to harvest to 200kg strawberries a day - and it doesn't need a visa or a toilet break.
Even before Brexit, farmers had been complaining that they were finding it increasingly hard to recruit labour to pick their summer harvests.
And last week a party of growers - including wine producers - attended a demonstration of robotic fruit picking organised by Produced In Kent to learn how the robots might help them in future.
Founder and CEO of Dogtooth Technologies, Dr Duncan Robertson, said: ”Go back a few hundred years, before the Agricultural Revolution, and farming used to employ about one person for every hectare.
"Now across the farming sector, the average is one person for every 100 hectares - except in horticulture, where it remains stubbornly at one per hectare, the same as in the 17th century.
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