According to Roland Berger's recent report on Specialty Crop Automation, profitability, labor availability, and regulatory hurdles are the key barriers that impact specialty crop growers in the U.S. and Europe.
Indeed, 33% of growers identified labor availability as their most pressing challenge in Roland Berger's recent analysis, while another 34% identified it as their second biggest challenge, making it behind farm profitability. Difficulty in finding adequate labor results in growers struggling to harvest all their planted crops.
This ultimately damages growers' top-line performance and, coupled with increasing labor costs, puts further pressure on profitability. The share of grower respondents making investments in automation technologies increased from approximately 60% in 2019 to more than 70% in 2022 (see Figure 2). In 2022, the average amount spent on automation per grower reached $500,000 annually.
This showed considerable progress compared to last year when average investments in automation were around $350,000 to $400,000 per grower per year. In addition, growers are optimistic about continuing to increase their spending on automation projects.
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