Several prominent Washington tree fruit grower-shippers say they foresee labor shortages but are not banking on mechanization and robotic harvesters to resolve them. The Washington Tree Fruit Research Commission is funding the development of a robotic apple harvesting system, but during a panel discussion at the Washington State Horticultural Association’s annual meeting in Wenatchee, Doug Pauly dismissed mechanization as a solution to labor shortages. Pauly, who is operations manager at Northern Fruit Company, Wenatchee, expressed skepticism that a robot could reach into a tree to pick apples at the same speed as a human and said he thought the expense […]