Nature’s Pride has world’s first avocado-packing robot

Nature’s Pride has the first operational avocado packing robot in the world. This innovation, called the Speedpacker, packs avocados ergonomically and efficiently without making concessions to quality. As demand for avocados increases, Nature’s Pride intends to use this to be an even better partner for its growers and customers.

The Speedpacker has three feed streams and is capable of processing 240 avocados per minute. The camera technology detects the avocados for the grippers. In this way the grippers know exactly how to pick up the avocados and place them in the boxes.

Nature’s Pride entered a partnership with the machinery maker Selo to develop the Speedpacker.

Mo Ayachi, operations manager at Nature’s Pride, said:

“Like us, Selo is a true pioneer and is very technically oriented. They also strive for top quality combined with cost efficiency. We found the ideal partner in Selo. For us, ‘together’ means working together, moving forward together, and also developing together.”

The process took about two years and involved extensive testing. The robot is now operational in the packing room in Maasdijk.

Willibrord Woertman, CEO of Selo, said:

“The Speedpacker is the result of a unique collaboration between Selo and Nature’s Pride, where Nature’s Pride contributed all its knowledge of avocados and Selo its knowledge of robotics and grippers. We have succeeded in automatically packing avocados which were previously packed manually.”