Call for partners: Resilient fresh value chain

Sensors, data management tools and intelligent algorithms can significantly improve fresh value chain management by collecting data from cultivation to retail and translating it into actionable insights. It is crucial that algorithms capture both the pre- and post-harvest phases – from cultivation to storage and logistics – to ensure consistent product quality for consumers.

The project aims to design an organisational framework for quality assurance across the entire fresh produce value chain. In addition, we will develop and test data-driven tools – particularly algorithms and sensor technology – that link product quality before and after harvest.

Ultimately, we aim to minimise food loss and waste across the supply chain, ensuring that fresh products reaching consumers meet high quality standards and deliver the desired shelf life. The knowledge gained will be applied in four practical use cases involving tomatoes, cucumbers and melons.

User cases

• Mitigate the quality issues of tomatoes due to full LED cultivation and the use of increasingly more resistant ToBRFV cultivars.
• Create better performing cucumber genotypes with longer shelf life that can last longer in terms of weight loss and do not suffer from the lack of snap.
• Predicting and steering quality of melons by predicting ripeness using non-destructive tools.
• Early detection of mycosphaerella in cucumber, both pre- and postharvest.

We invite Dutch companies in the horticultural fresh value chainto participate in this project. Breeders, growers, traders, logistics providers, retailers, consumer behaviour experts, processors and data platform suppliers and tech companies in the fields of sensors and computer vision are all welcome.