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XLSOR delivers standard and customized reporting to help you make pick-by and sell-by decisions that yield the sweetest, highest quality fruit
About
The application of non-destructive sensors in fruit tree production systems has been limited due to the complexity for model development. Currently, non-destructive sensors with accurate prediction models of internal fruit quality and maturity parameters are not commercially available yet. Our team utilized an off the shelf handheld Vis-NIRS device and through a novel approach developed robust non-destructive prediction models for maturity and quality assessment with a single scan (patent pending). Dry matter content (DMC, error=0.41%) which describes the fruit sweetness potential during fruit growth and correlates with consumer acceptance at harvest; Brix degrees that describe the fruit sweetness at harvest (error=0.58) and a fruit chlorophyl index (error=0.08) that describes fruit maturity could be estimated accurately in peach with a single scan during fruit growth and development in the orchard. Our technology following more than 7 years (2016-present) of continuous research and development has been customized for over 30 peach cultivars as well as 2 apple cultivars and validated in lab, field and grower environment (TRL 6: large scale-real world demonstration stage) to collect reliable and valuable crop progress information to support grower decision making for management, harvest time and sales planning.
Key Benefits
Today, the most important decisions about timing for produce harvest and sales planning are based on little or no data, often resulting in over or under ripened fruit, fruit waste and lost sales. With XLSOR’s system, peach growers can make data-informed decisions that increase their labor planning accuracy, increase yield of appropriately ripened fruit, and smooth planning with retailers.
Applications
Our beachhead market is medium-sized peach growing operations who may or may not utilize a distributor. Our 2023 pilot that includes peach fruit growers and packers is with a very specific segment in the state of Colorado and actively planning expansion to other fruit growing regions in the USA and the world. Our next markets will be packinghouses and retail store managers who need reliable fruit maturation and quality data to optimize labor, handling and promotions planning with increased packouts and return sales. Our technology will be valuable for commercial tree fruit producers, packers, exporters, wholesalers, and retailers of major fruit crops (peach, apple, cherry, kiwifruit, mango, avocado) across the world. We have learned from our customer discovery interviews thus far that the greatest value is on the two ends of the supply chain. We have launched with the start of the supply chain: the growers/producers. The next step will be retailers that need better data to plan sales and promotions, as well as reduce waste from low sales or poor ripening, and we will test how valuable more accurate timing predictions would be for them.