AI sorting
Mabel Hernández and Constanza Sepúlveda travelled to the Verona area to see UNITEC's new defect sorter working on fresh cherries, in the middle of the season.
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Between 30 June and 7 July, Mabel Hernández and Constanza Sepúlveda travelled to Italy to see UNITEC’s latest development in defect sorting, the Cherry Vision 4.0 Ai, installed at a late-season cherry packing plant in the Verona area.
The aim was a specific one: to confirm what these technologies are worth on fresh cherries during harvest and packing. Not in a demonstration room, but in a plant running at the pace of the season, which is the only condition under which a sorting line can really be judged.
The leap is in the detection
The visit did what it set out to do. We were able to confirm a significant leap in the detection of fruit defects: firmness, cuts, bruising, and even the entry holes left by quarantine insects such as Lobesia botrana or pests such as Drosophila.
These are precisely the defects that are hardest to catch by eye on the line, and the ones that cost the most at the other end of the journey, when the box is opened at destination.
Why it matters to us
Sorting is not a technical detail: it is what holds up the consistency every box we ship promises. Seeing this technology work on fresh fruit, in the middle of the season, is the best way to anticipate what is coming for the Chilean cherry.