Going bananas about AI for fresh produce logistics

Ahead of the 13th Cool Logistics Global online 19-21 October, Cool Logistics Resources talked with Hans-Willem van der Waal of Agro Fair about post-harvest digital innovation for shipments of organic banana

"Reducing food waste, improving farmer income and increasing customer satisfaction: those are the challenges that we face when shipping organic bananas from Latin America to Europe," says Hans-Willem van der Waal, CEO of Agro Fair Europe BV, a market pioneer in production and distribution of organic and fairtrade bananas, pineapples and other tropical fruits and vegetables.

Organic bananas are grown naturally, explains van der Waal, and cannot be protected against decay during transport with chemical substances. At some times of the year, the bananas become prone to rotting at the crowns (the cutting surfaces) which can lead to rejections by customers, waste and claims.

To address this issue for post-harvest management of organic produce, AgroFair has developed a machine learning algorithm based on a large data set of QC survey reports on arrival. The algorithm analyses and learns from parameters such as local weather, producer characteristics and packaging options to predict the risk of crown rot prior to shipment in a reefer container. It also advices if shipping in controlled atmosphere (CA) refrigerated containers will reduce the risk of crown rot and if this is an economical choice. "The results are very encouraging with predictive accuracy well over 90% and a reduction in related costs in the past year," says van der Waal.

The model was developed for AgroFair by Theofrastos Mantadelis Ph.D who has been doing research in the field of artificial intelligence since 2008. Lately, he became interested in the application of AI in agriculture and post-harvest and is currently founding the portal dimetra.eu.

Hans Willem van der Waal and Theofrastos Mantadelis will talk about Agro Fair's AI-driven solution during the CoolTech Forum on 21 Oct. As part of #coolglobal21. CoolTech will explore innovations and convergence across CoolTech, AgriTech and LogTech - from automation and digitalisation, to energy and refrigeration, to post-harvest management, sustainability and the circular economy, climate control, packaging, e-commerce and more. Key panels will look at cold chain visibility, smart reefers, e-bills of lading, digital standards and interoperability, last-to-first mile engineering, and waste reduction across food, packaging and energy with speakers including

Cool Logistics is excited to share and showcase innovations that are making a difference to perishables logistics and cold chain efficiency and sustainability for global trade in food, pharmaceuticals, flowers and other key cargoes. More details and bookings at https://bit.ly/coolglobal21 and last few speaker slots still open.

The 3rd Cool Innovation in Perishable Logistics Award is also still open for entries at https://bit.ly/coolaward21