Tools and Technology for Predicting Tomato Glasshouse Production

Year round UK glasshouse production of tomatoes for supermarkets is highly intensive. Although this

production is highly controlled it is still difficult to accurately predict picking yields which has an impact

on the food supply chain. This inaccuracy requires businesses to continually react to this inefficacy.

Over-prediction results in costly imports, whilst under-prediction incurs financial losses from the

disposal of surplus fruit. There is considerable potential to reduce these losses and increase the

proportion of UK sales by improving the accuracy of yield forecasts. We will develop an imaging system,

TomVision, and mathematical models, PredictTomPro, to more accurately predict weekly yields and

deliver significant savings in import costs and waste. Our aim is to predict weekly harvests to 10% of

actual, that will generate £30K/ha extra income p.a. for producers and for the developers the

anticipated sales of these tools of £1.3M/£11.3M/£26M (UK/EU/W) after 5 years.