Florida's tomato sector, historically dependent on manual labor, is on the cusp of a transformation with the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) developing machine-harvestable tomato varieties.
Jessica Chitwood-Brown, a tomato breeder, underscored the global challenge of labor-intensive tomato harvesting and the ongoing efforts to mechanize this process. The development of these varieties is attributed to the work of Jay Scott and Sam Hutton, who have focused on traits like jointless pedicels that facilitate mechanical picking.
Michael Schadler from the Florida Tomato Committee conveyed a cautious optimism among growers about mechanization potentially balancing the labor cost advantage seen in countries like Mexico. The industry is poised for large-scale trials to evaluate the economic viability of these new harvesting methods. With machine-harvesting prototypes expected for testing in the near future, Florida's tomato industry looks towards a potentially more efficient harvesting paradigm.
Source: seedworld.com
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