Rockit Global Limited has become the first company in the world to sign on with Hectre for both the Spectre for Size and Spectre for Colour detection solutions.
“Rockit Global is such a fantastic client. We’ve worked with their team for a number of years now, so it feels extra special to have them as our world first customer for the Spectre combo,” says Matty Blomfield, CEO at Hectre.
Rockit Global are well known for their innovation, launching the world’s first miniature apple variety, Rockit™ apples, which have been a hit around the world and are sold fresh in more than 30 countries. A natural hybrid of NZ’s popular Gala and Gala x Splendour apples, the small but mighty apples are jam packed with energy, fibre and potassium.
“Rockit is committed to using technology to deliver the best possible product to our customers. A big part of our current innovation strategy is being able to get reliable, useful and timely information to decision makers, allowing the best choices to be made regarding apples, during harvest and post-harvest. Hectre gives us this with advanced size, colour and quality information which allows both feedback to the growers for future picking and to the packhouse, allowing more targeted batch selection for a given market,” states Stuart Dykes, Innovation & Performance Manager at Rockit Global.
Developed over the past two years by the passionate Hectre R&D team, Spectre is Hectre’s computer vision detection tool. Providing users with accurate fruit sizing and colour data in seconds from the simple click of an iPhone or iPad, Spectre detects all visible apples from the top layer of the bin and then estimates full size and colour distributions, serving up user friendly distribution graphs which detail critical data such as average count size and colour percentages.
The ability to gain the benefits from both accurate size and colour creates fantastic advantages for fruit warehouses and pack houses. Saving time, gaining and capturing accurate data, and most importantly, empowering decision making regarding fit for market and storage efficiencies.
One customer recently commented that using Spectre for Size is saving them over USD$28,000 pa through reduced reset costs alone.
Above: Spectre for Size comparison against commercial grader reflecting Spectre’s high accuracy rates of 95%+ .
Hectre is on a growth trajectory as more and more orchardists and enterprise identify that no other orchard software delivers the single platform solution that Hectre offers. Harvest management, timesheet and payroll integration, task management, spray collation, insights and reporting, plus the addition of the computer vision fruit size and colour detection capability of Spectre – all from an iPad or phone. A relentless focus on user simplicity and continual innovation is further cementing Hectre’s position as a world leader in the AgTech space.
“We’re in a very exciting phase and anticipate many of our customers will be seeking the Spectre for Size and Colour combo as they recognise the tech edge achieved with having easy access to fast and accurate data, for both size and colour,” adds Matty Blomfield.
In response to market demand, work has already been completed for Spectre use on citrus leading to First Fresh NZ becoming Hectre’s first citrus client. Other fruit and vegetable types are currently being configured. Watch this space!
