According to the research report published by MarketsandMarkets™ the “Smart Harvest Market by Site of Operation (On-field, Greenhouse, Indoor), Component (Harvesting Robots, Automation & Control Systems, Imaging Systems, Sensors, Software), Crop Type (Fruits and Vegetables), and Region – Global Forecast to 2023“. The market for smart harvest is projected to reach $15.6 billion by 2023, at a CAGR of 11.81% by 2023. It is driven by factors such as growing farm labor issues due to higher costs & availability, and cost efficiency benefits offered by smart harvest systems.
Harvesting robots are projected to have the fastest growth among hardware in the smart harvest market during the forecast period.
Harvesting is one of the important phases of farming and requires great amount of bending and lifting through manual labor. Additionally, labor shortage affects the overall yield output. To cater to this issue, manufacturers have introduced autonomous harvesting robots that harvests fruits & vegetables with little or no human intervention. Although majority of the manufacturers have harvesting robots in the testing phase & are designed to harvest limited fruits and vegetables. With enhanced functionalities, these smart harvest robots are expected to launch in the market for sales during the forecast period. Increasing labor shortage & need to reduce labor costs, the demand for smart harvesting robots is projected to witness highest growth during the forecast period.
Europe is projected to dominate the smart harvest market by 2023.
The smart harvest market in Europe is projected to witness significant growth during the forecast period due to the prospect of increasing production, labor shortage issues, development of smart technologies, and their adoption in agriculture. The developed countries in the European Union are in the forefront of adopting smart harvest technologies. In a bid to improve the production output and reduce the costs associated with harvesting. Additionally, the development of smart harvest technologies is being actively encouraged. Driven by both public and private programs to bring about the commercialization of these technologies. Projects such as the CROPS (Clever Robots for Crops), SWEEPER (Sweet Pepper Harvesting Robot), & the Hands-free Hectare project highlight the industry efforts. To develop and commercialize the deployment of smart harvest systems in the region.
By site of operation, indoor segment is estimated to dominate the smart harvest market in 2018.
The indoor segment includes container farming and vertical farming, which requires a controlled environment. The systems are reliant on multiple sensors installed throughout to understand the surroundings and navigate across the work area. High-resolution multi-spectral cameras and imaging sensors observe and monitor the produce to determine the time for harvest. Given the substantial growth of indoor farming practices, it is expected to pose strong growth opportunities for smart harvest systems over the next decade.
This report includes a study of the development strategies, along with the product portfolios of leading companies. It also includes the profiles of leading companies such as Robert Bosch GmbH (Germany), Deere & Company (US), Smart Harvest Ltd. (UK), Dogtooth Technologies (UK), Harvest Automation (US), Panasonic Corporation (Japan). Root AI (US), Abundant Robotics (US), Iron Ox (US), Agrobot (Spain), Energid Technologies Corp. (US), FFRobotics (Israel), Vision Robotics Corp. (US), Metomotion (Israel), AVL Motion (Netherlands), and Harvest Croo (US).