"Expansion of greenhouse acreage can only happen with automation and robotization"

Martin Maasland has been CEO of ISO Horti Innovators for over 100 days and is positively surprised by the horticulture sector's entrepreneurial spirit and innovative strength. He claims that the organization, its employees, and several of ISO's customers have held up a good mirror to him. According to Martin, ISO is "Gameren's best-kept secret", although he believes that may change. He offers the RoBoPlant as an example: "Almost all chrysanthemum growers in the Netherlands have a RoBoPlant from ISO, a fully automatic planting machine." Alongside the RoBoPlant, the company's products include an automatic cutting planter and a bulb planting robot.

Robotization
"Margins in (greenhouse) horticulture, as we know, are often limited, so robotization should bring significant savings and improvements,” Martin says. "That does not mean merely saving on and/or replacing labor, but primarily improving the quality of the process and thus the end products. The payback period always remains important for entrepreneurs in (greenhouse) horticulture. This must be less than 5 years; otherwise, you don't have a good proposition as a supplier."

"At year-round companies, the payback period is often significantly shorter. For these types of companies, this means sometimes a payback period of less than 2 years combined with much better quality and less downtime. Higher quality often means a better price. Less downtime means lower costs through better space utilization, less waste, and less energy, water, and fertilizer per finished product and better returns."

Innovation
Martin: "As a machine builder, we continue to innovate within the sector. Now, we are testing our cutting planter robot in tree cultivation. This market is interesting to explore. Several projects are also underway to robotize more complex, repetitive work in (greenhouse) horticulture. Recently, in collaboration with Viscon, we have developed a customized cutting planter robot to automate plant tissue culture."

According to ISO, there is a crop grafting trend as a result of climate change with the goal of quality improvement. In this light, ISO has recently developed a 'high-speed grafter,' which is used for the grafting of various crop types, including for the propagation of tomato plants. Maasland: "The first customer in North America can produce 4,000 grafts per hour with this robot. The robot uses vision technology to check in advance which lower and upper stem best match. Afterward, it checks the quality of the graft. Again, it’s about increasing sustainability and profitability."

Future
Maasland expects worldwide acreage of high-tech greenhouses to expand from roughly 60,000 acres now to 100,000 acres in 10 years. He believes that this can only happen with automation and robotization because of wage scarcity and rising wages. He explains: "I see tree cultivation for the paper and wood industry because of the growing demand for paper, CO2 compensation, and/or reforestation. Automated cutting planters and sorting machines can optimize the propagation process and increase the efficiency and profitability of tree cultivation."

According to Martin, the topic of sustainability is becoming more important to greenhouse entrepreneurs. He elaborates: "Reducing waste and making the best use of water and raw materials becomes essential for entrepreneurs to be allowed to continue supplying grocery stores, for example. Integration of data in the context of, for example, traceability through the chain and quality control is a next step that can only be achieved with extensive robotization."