Okanagan Specialty Fruits experiments with AI harvest forecasts

UK‑based FruitCast offers a similar AI forecasting service for berries and tomatoes, using drone or smartphone footage and weather and irrigation inputs. The firm claims its predictions are within 10% of actual pick volume a week out (90% accurate) and within 17% three weeks out (83% accurate). Researchers at Princeton and several universities are also exploring millimetre‑wave and smartphone‑based methods to gauge fruit ripeness, though adoption remains uncertain as growers weigh cost, data privacy and the need for human judgment.