Bringing together retailers, breeders, and packers/exporters from across the global berry value chain, the Congress provided a timely platform to address a growing industry challenge: delivering consistent berry quality while managing variability and reducing shrink.
The Future of Berry Quality
As part of the AI & Automation programme, Malkeet Padda, Ph.D., Director of R&D and Regulatory at AgroFresh, presented “The Future of Berry Quality: Powered by Intelligence.” Drawing on extensive industry experience, including years at Driscoll’s, his presentation emphasised that technology must be anchored in strong biological and operational fundamentals.
He outlined the core principles that underpin berry quality—genetics, physiology, growing conditions, and harvest practices—highlighting that technology can enhance, but never replace, these foundations.
Predictive performance management
Building on these fundamentals, the presentation addressed a critical industry shift: moving from reactive quality control to predictive performance management.
“Variability is the single biggest hidden cost in berries,” said Padda. “Too often, quality risks are only identified after shipment, when it is already too late to act.”
AgroFresh highlighted that while large volumes of data already exist across the value chain, they remain fragmented—limiting the ability to make timely, informed decisions. The key question raised during the session: do we manage fruit, or do we manage variability?
To address this, AgroFresh presented a system-wide approach to berry quality, structured around three key stages:
- Measure early, decide smarter: reducing variability at the source through precise harvest timing and AI-powered, objective quality assessment
- Protect and monitor: managing transit and storage risks with decay control solutions and real-time condition monitoring
- Connect the system: integrating data across harvest, grading and cold chain to enable predictive shelf-life modelling and risk-based decision-making
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This integrated approach reflects a shift toward end-to-end visibility, where decisions are no longer made in isolation but informed by a continuous flow of data across the supply chain.
At its stand, AgroFresh demonstrated how this system comes to life in practice—combining solutions such as Harvista™, Berrisys™, FreshCloud™, and real-time monitoring technologies to support quality from pre-harvest through to retail.
Throughout the event, AgroFresh engaged with breeders, packers/exporters and retailers, showing how a connected approach can help reduce shrink, improve consistency and enable more confident commercial decisions.
AgroFresh’s participation at the Congress reinforced its commitment to supporting the berry industry with solutions that bridge science, technology and data—shifting the focus from reacting to problems to proactively managing performance.
