Hectre’s Head of Sales, Kevin Park, and Account Manager, Danny Herbert, were back on the road last week after being invited to demonstrate Hectre’s mobile fruit-sizing app Spectre for Citrus at the NZ Citrus Conference in Gisborne, New Zealand.
The event was an excellent opportunity to put Spectre for Citrus in front of citrus growers and packers from across the industry.
“The best part was the conversations we had. A lot of the attendees had heard of Hectre but weren’t aware of how Spectre for Citrus could be used to size citrus fruits or that Hectre’s orchard management software can also help citrus growers. Meeting everyone, talking through how Hectre can help, and getting to demonstrate how easy and quick Spectre for Citrus is, was really satisfying,” said Herbert.
Spectre for Citrus was developed specifically for citrus fruits, such as oranges, lemons, mandarins and limes, to provide valuable early size data to make crucial decisions around packing, storage, and sales.
The innovative app uses state-of-the-art computer vision and machine learning technology to detect citrus fruit size, and all that is required is a picture of the fruit bin taken from an iPad or iPhone.
Once the picture is uploaded to Spectre, a size distribution graph is returned within seconds.
Hectre customer First Fresh NZ (the largest citrus supplier to the NZ domestic market) has been using Spectre for Citrus since 2020. First Fresh NZ Managing Director, Ian Albers, was recently interviewed for a Hectre case study, where he described the value of Spectre for Citrus for both orchards and packhouses.
“It’s really easy to take some photos, get the results, report back in real-time to the grower, and have that information flow back into our system as well. If there is a size limitation that the pickers should be adhering to, with Spectre, growers are able to make adjustments on the fly.”
Ian AlbersManaging Director, First Fresh NZ
As they did at the recent APAL Orchard Tour where Hectre’s Spectre for Apples was showcased, Herbert and Park offered attendees the chance to try and beat Spectre and win themselves some craft beers. The competition, “Beat Spectre for Beersies”, sees attendees making their own “guesstimations” of the top three orange size ranges in a bin of oranges.
“We love bringing this Hectre competition to industry. As always, it was competitive! Neighbour verse neighbour, packhouse verse packhouse, lots of self-described orange sizing experts keen to give it a go. It was a lot of fun, a real crowd pleaser. A big thanks to First Fresh NZ for providing the fruit and making us feel welcome. And if you took part, keep your phone handy, we will be notifying the winners shortly!” said Herbert.
Spectre began as an early apple sizing application. However, in response to industry demand, Spectre for Citrus and Spectre for Cherries were also developed and are now being used by both Hectre’s domestic and international customers. Spectre customers include Rockit Global, Washington Fruit and Produce Company, Sage Fruit, BC Tree Fruits and Monson Fruit, just to name a few.
Hectre also recently launched Spectre Top Down, which provides size data for thousands of apples straight off the back of flatbed trucks as they arrive at receiving.
If you would like to discuss how Hectre’s award winning, simple to use technologies can deliver benefits to your business, contact us now for a free consultation.
