PLANT CITY, Fla — Gary Wishnatzki tells ABC Action News reporter Michael Paluska the future of farming will rely on robots, artificial intelligence, and machine learning to keep strawberry prices reasonable.
The robot is called Harvest CROO (Computerized Robotic Optimized Obtainer).
Wishnatzki says changing demographics, outdated migrant work visas, and second-generation children of farmworkers opting not to work in the fields like their parents mean there are fewer people available to work. And Floridians won't do the job.
"There are virtually no American citizens who are willing to do this work anymore," Wishnatzki said. "The future of strawberries could be where they go to a luxury item. If we don't have automation."
WATCH: Full report from Michael Paluska
Since 2013, Wish Farms has been working on creating a machine that can harvest as fast as a human. Back then, the technology wasn't there; now it is.
"The Nvidia chip is 200 times more powerful than the previous chip. It takes milliseconds to identify ripe berries," Wishnatzki said. "Faster than a human can recognize a ripe berry."
All of the workers come in on temporary H-2A work visas.
"This program was set up in the 1980s and is very outdated because when it was first set up, it was a means for growers to get workers as a last resort. Now it's our only resort without H-2A, we could not get our farm picked down in Duette," Wishnatzki said.
"Because it takes about one person per acre to cover the strawberry field over the pick cycle of three days. So if we have 800 acres of strawberries, we need 800 people currently. And those workers aren't available here locally. So now we have to bring in H2-A. It is very costly. We have to pay to transport the workers here. We have to pay for their housing. We have to pay to get them to work back and forth each day, and on top of that, we have to pay them an adverse effect wage rate, which is higher than the minimum wage. Some pickers can make $25 to $30 per hour."
The 2025 growing season is the first time the harvester has been able to collect as many strawberries as a human.
"The concept is similar to how a human picks strawberries with some of the motion, how the claw spins and pops the berry off. One machine will replace about 25 people who are doing the same work. But the thing is, we're picking four beds at a time, and the machine will pick all day and night. These machines will pick 16 to 20 hours a day."
Wish Farms is now looking for private investors to build the robots to scale. Then, Wish Farms will rent them out as a service to other producers across the country.
"I think if we get about 1000 going, we should cover most of North America," Wishnatzki said.
“It's a little nerve-wracking.”
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