Peru hand-picks every blueberry it exports. Robots bruise the fruit. Harvest labour has become a strategic problem.
Peru shipped about 370,000 tonnes of fresh blueberries in the 2025-26 season — more than any country on earth. Every single berry was picked by hand: mechanical harvesters bruise the fruit too badly for a three-to-four-week refrigerated journey to the United States, Europe, or China. About 135,000 seasonal workers fill the 26,000-hectare (roughly 64,000-acre) harvest belt at peak. When volume projections miss, staffing and costs collapse together. No selective robotic harvester has been built for this market yet: not for Peru's export varieties, not for its harvest conditions.
01The pain
Every fresh blueberry exported from Peru was picked by a human hand. Over-the-row mechanical harvesters are standard in frozen-fruit processing; they straddle a row of bushes and shake all the fruit loose at once. That bruising rules them out for fresh export. A berry spending three to four weeks in cold chain (the refrigerated supply route from farm to shelf) cannot absorb that exit.3
Peru is the world's biggest fresh blueberry exporter.2 Growers shipped about 370,000 tonnes in the 2025-26 season, across 26,000 certified hectares (about 64,000 acres) mainly in La Libertad and Lambayeque. The harvest window is short and fixed: blueberries ripen when they ripen, not when it is convenient. Growers need roughly 135,000 seasonal workers at peak.1 When volume projections miss, staffing and costs collapse together. The current season ran 14 to 17% below early forecasts, per Proarándanos (Peru's national blueberry-growers' association).
Selective robotic harvesters use camera-guided arms to pick one berry at a time without bruising. The first commercial deployments reached the United States in 2025.3 None has been calibrated for Peru's three main commercial varieties (Ventura, Biloxi, and Sekoya Pop) or for the altitude and coastal conditions of Peru's harvest belt. A team at UPAO (the Antenor Orrego Private University, Trujillo) funds a research prototype that scans and counts berries on the bush.5 It does not pick them.
Further reading
- 1 Blueberries Consulting — "The new commercial phase for blueberries in Ica demands greater precision and better coordination." Panel "Peru Moving Forward" at Blueberry Convention Paracas 2026 (May 6, 2026): José Luis Dibos (GM, Surexport Peru Berries) on harvest timing precision ("one or two hours has a huge impact on shelf life"), staffing disruption when projections miss, and the explicit statement that recruitment and retention are now strategic concerns: blueberriesconsulting.com
- 2 Portal Frutícola — "The final stretch of Peruvian blueberry exports." Miguel Bentín (president of Proarándanos, Peru's national blueberry-growers' association) reports ~370,000 tonnes expected by season close, 26,000 certified hectares in production, US growth of only 5% due to tariffs, Europe up ~35%, China up ~18%; confirms variety shift from Ventura and Biloxi to Sekoya Pop: portalfruticola.com
- 3 Portal Frutícola — technical article on mechanical blueberry harvesters comparing tractor-pulled vs self-propelled machines. Confirms explicitly that mechanical harvesting of blueberries is not viable for fresh export in distant-market exporters (Chile, Peru) due to bruising; mechanisation is limited to frozen-fruit or industrial uses: portalfruticola.com
- 4 Blueberries Consulting — "Leading Peruvian blueberry production companies discuss the challenges in the industry." Panel from XXXIV International Blueberries Seminar Peru 2025 (Lima, March 12, 2025): Juan Pablo Bentín (Production Manager, Family Farms Peru) on labour shortages as a key challenge; Juan Valdivia (Danper) on competitive-variety strategy; Gonzalo Carlazara (Agrovisión) on climate challenges in the north: blueberriesconsulting.com
- 5 Fresh Plaza Latin America — "UPAO develops a robot to improve blueberry harvest planning in Peru." Sixto Prado (electronic engineer, UPAO, Trujillo) on the self-locating robot that detects, counts and assesses the maturity of blueberries on the bush for production planning — not harvesting. Notes commercial interest from northern Peruvian blueberry companies and a target 95%+ accuracy: freshplaza.com
Operators discussing this
These are real Peruvian blueberry operators — farm managers, production directors, export GMs — talking about this pain at their own industry conventions. They are the reason this page exists.
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«recruitment and retention are no longer merely operational issues but have become strategic concerns»
The new commercial phase for blueberries in Ica — Panel "Peru Moving Forward" · Blueberries Consulting — José Luis Dibos, General Manager, Surexport Peru Berries; Blueberry Convention Paracas, May 6, 2026; 34 days old at time of writing. The same panel documented five executives from different firms converging on the same labour theme.
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«rapid production growth must be sustained by operational excellence at all levels, overcoming challenges such as labor shortages»
Leading Peruvian blueberry production companies discuss industry challenges · Blueberries Consulting — Juan Pablo Bentín, Production Manager, Family Farms Peru; XXXIV International Blueberries Seminar Peru, Lima, March 12, 2025; panel with five major producers; labour shortages explicitly named as the top operational challenge alongside climate variability.
02Who solves this today
We searched for companies offering selective robotic blueberry harvesters with computer-vision picking arms — specifically ones calibrated for fresh-export quality (no bruising, long cold chain) and available to lease or buy in Peru's La Libertad and Lambayeque harvest belt. We ran product-page reads, trade-press scans, and native-language queries across agtech registries and industry directories. Here is what we found globally and why none yet serve this specific market:
- FFRobotics (Israel) — ffrobotics.com. Verified live. Makes the FFRobot, a computer-vision selective-picking arm for fresh fruit, marketed as "bruise-free" harvesting. Self-marketed for apples, pears, citrus, and tree fruits. No blueberry-specific product page found. No Latin American service presence documented on the homepage. No evidence of Peru deployments. Not a solver for Peru's fresh-export blueberry picking.
- Agrobot (Spain) — agrobot.com. Verified live. Makes the "Aid Harvester" for strawberry harvesting, plus a bug-vacuum robot. Strawberry-only; no blueberry robot on product pages. Spain-based; no Peru or Latin American service or sales presence documented. Not a solver for blueberries.
- Advanced Farm Technologies — cited in US agriculture press as a California-based company developing selective berry-harvesting robots. Their domain (advanced.farm) timed out during our check; we could not read homepage content. Status in Peru: unknown. Not verified as a solver for this market.
- Tortuga AgTech — cited in US agtech press as a berry-harvesting robotics startup working with large strawberry growers. No stable domain found at the time of writing. Status in Peru: unknown. Not verified.
The demand is concrete: roughly 370,000 tonnes of fresh blueberries, 26,000 hectares, 135,000 seasonal workers, in a compressed harvest window, all needing a picking tool that does not bruise the fruit. The robot gap is real — it is not a technology gap (selective-arm robots work on other crops), it is a calibration, variety-adaptation, and service-presence gap in Peru specifically. For a founder, this is a lease-and-service opportunity: a selective robotic picker calibrated for Ventura, Biloxi, and Sekoya Pop varieties, tuned for Peru's harvest conditions, deployed with a maintenance crew, billed per hectare or per season. No company holds this market today. If you build or know a company that actually solves this pain, email contact@aikraft.com and we will list them.
Report a mistake — or suggest a new solution
Spot a wrong number, dead source link, missing aspect? Or know a vendor we should list as a solution? Tell us. The Director re-checks every report and either updates the page or writes back with a reason.
Got it — thank you.
The Director will look at your report on the next research cycle. If you left an email you'll hear back when we either update the page or decide it's not actionable (with a one-paragraph reason).
No companies listed yet — get on this page. This page is in no-solver-yet mode: after reading product pages for global selective-harvest robot vendors, we could not find a company whose product page concretely addresses fresh-export blueberry harvesting in Peru's harvest belt. If you build or know a company that does, write to us and we will list it within 7 business days. If you are named on this page above and want a correction or removal, that runs through the same channel. Email contact@aikraft.com.