'Mexican horticulture will mechanize and automate more'

Sosef has been working in Mexico for ten years and has seen a lot of changes in Mexican horticulture during that period. The degree of mechanization and automation in high-tech and mid-tech companies has grown significantly and he sees that there is still a lot of development to be done.

He points to a number of trends in covered horticulture in the regions of central Mexico, where Querétaro is located.

Crop shredding machines

“We see that the growing season is getting longer, because labor and the costs of the required tools are increasing significantly. Growers therefore want to get more out of their crops. The result is that they try to keep the crop rotation as short as possible.” Sosef sees this reflected, among other things, in the growing demand for crop shredding machines. “This allows you to switch crops more quickly. It was very difficult to sell the first chippers in Mexico. But nowadays they are hard to come by, so to speak.”

Labor costs are rising

Another trend is that labor in Mexico has become increasingly expensive and scarce in recent years.

Finding and retaining good personnel for harvest- and crop work is a limiting factor for many companies. In addition, the minimum wage is increasing by about twenty percent per year, according to the General Manager of Royal Brinkman.

“The response to this is that companies are increasingly investing in things such as mechanization and automation. We see, among other things, an increasing demand for high-quality pipe rail trolleys.” Royal Brinkman offers Berg Hortimotive products under its own brand name.

Sosef notes that customers in North America are also placing increasingly higher demands on the quality of fresh vegetables and the speed of delivery. “That is also a driver for more mechanization and better technical systems,” he says.

Water solutions

Furthermore, Sosef also expects a lot of interest in water technology solutions in the long term. “Such as machines that add extra oxygen to the water based on nanobubble technology. Drain water recirculation systems are also coming into the picture, because water consumption must meet increasing restrictions in Mexico. This has to do with the decreasing water levels in the sources used.”

Written by KOEN VAN WIJK

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