Annual Awards Program Recognizes Innovation in Agricultural & Food Technologies Around the Globe
LOS ANGELES, Aug. 17, 2023 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- NZ based fruit tech startup Hectre, has today been announced as winner of the "Overall Supply Chain Solution Of The Year" category in the 4th annual AgTech Breakthrough Awards. The awards program is conducted by AgTech Breakthrough, a leading market intelligence organization that recognizes the top companies, technologies, and products in today's global agricultural and food technology markets.
Hectre has developed transformative technology for the global fruit growing and packing industry, and it's focus on delivering value across the supply chain, has set the company apart from other providers. This is the third year in a row that the company has been named a winner in the awards program.
"We are proud to recognize Hectre with the 'Overall Supply Chain Solution Of The Year' award for the innovation they are bringing to such an essential industry. Hectre brings value to multiple points in the supply chain, supporting industry to streamline key processes, and access valuable data earlier than ever before. With Hectre's range of solutions, growers and packers can drive efficiency and performance, and gain greater insights for informed decision making and profitability," said Bryan Vaughn, Managing Director, AgTech Breakthrough. "Most fruit tech companies play in one market space, like labor management or fruit sorting. Each market has complexities and a never-ending collection of unique use cases. It's a huge challenge to successfully crossover into additional areas of the supply chain as Hectre have."
The combination of Orchard Management PLUS Early Fruit Sizing solutions that Hectre offers spans both growers and packers. The valuable offering has seen Hectre take an industry leadership position, signing on premier customers such as Washington Fruit & Produce, Sage Fruit, Cherri Global, Borton Fruit, BC Tree Fruits, Belle Harvest and more. The company's technology is now being picked up by fruit leaders in South America and Europe, as Hectre continues its global expansion.
In the post-harvest space, Hectre's early fruit sizing AI solution Spectre, sizes apples, pears, cherries, citrus and onions. Spectre provides reliable early data to support successful sales, storage and packing decisions, positively impacting pack planning capabilities, driving down repack rates and fruit loss, and enabling optimal sales.
Two Spectre core solutions have been released: A hand-held option where users simply take a photo of a bin of fruit on their phone or tablet and receive sizing results in seconds; and a top-down solution where a camera is installed above arriving trucks. More than 5,000 pieces of fruit are detected and sized by Spectre Top Down in one truck pass. Early color grading results are also available.
Hectre's grower innovations include Digital QC, where growers can track and assess picker performance and provide evidence based coaching for an improved pick and packout. Growers can identify and address picking issues early with Hectre and get more fruit to market. These evidence-based insights have become critical as the cost of labor and regulation continue to climb.
The company also helps to simplify labor management with their Digital Timesheet solution which automates complex pay structures including hourly wages, piece rates, minimum wages, group picks, and more. Hectre's auto calculation capability, plus data flow directly to payroll reports, means growers and their teams save time, reduce errors, and are supported to meet compliance requirements.
Matty Blomfield, Hectre Co-founder and CEO said, "It's been another huge year at Hectre. Our orchard management and AI fruit sizing solutions are now in the hands of growers and packers across four continents. Our innovation pace is faster than ever, enabling delivery of meaningful benefits across the global supply chain. To be named winners in the global AgTech Breakthrough Awards, not once, not twice, but three years in a row, really underlines the value our talented and committed team continue to bring to industry."
The mission of the annual AgTech Breakthrough Awards program is to conduct the industry's most comprehensive analysis and evaluation of agricultural and food technology categories, including Internet-of-Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) based agricultural technologies, farm management, indoor farming, food quality, data analytics and many more. This year's program attracted more than 1,750 nominations from over 15 different countries throughout the world.
About Hectre
Hectre is a multi award winning startup empowering fruit growers and packers, whether singular, vertical or enterprise level, with better data for better decisions. Originating in New Zealand, with teams in the US, NZ, and South America, Hectre creates leading edge orchard management and early fruit sizing apps. With Hectre, fruit growers can digitize their orchard management processes, saving time and money, and getting more of their fruit to market, enhancing their financial sustainability. Fruit packers can increase their early size sample rates by up to 4000%, accessing reliable size data earlier than ever before, enabling better decision making, reduced costs and achieving greater sales. The high-quality AI, ML, CV, and automation work Hectre delivers, whilst producing a practical, fast, and user-friendly interface, is attracting attention, with deep-tech VC Nuance recently investing. To learn more about Hectre, please visit http://www.hectre.com
About AgTech Breakthrough
Part of Tech Breakthrough, a leading market intelligence and recognition platform for global technology innovation and leadership, the AgTech Breakthrough Awards program is devoted to honoring excellence in agricultural & food technologies, services, companies and products around the world. The AgTech Breakthrough Awards program provides a forum for public recognition around the achievements of AgTech companies and solutions in categories including farm management, indoor farming, IoT and robotics, FoodTech, analytics and more. For more information visit AgTechBreakthrough.com.
Media Contact
Bryan Vaughn, AgTech Breakthrough, 949.529.4120, [email protected], https://agtechbreakthrough.com/
SOURCE AgTech Breakthrough
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