2022 GreenTech show starts with busy first day

In the Innovation category biocontrols supplier Biobest from Belgium scooped up the coveted award for Micromus, a generalist predator for protected crops.

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands: Overcrowded parking lots, busy aisles, full booths and an exciting array of greenhouse technology were the rule of the day for the opening of the 5th annual GreenTech at the RAI convention centre in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Mariska Dreschler, RAI director of Horticulture, said: “We have had a fantastic start.”

The exact numbers won’t be ready for a couple of days, but the opening day of the 2022 GreenTech looked impressive, with packed aisles and a parade of new tech products for plant breeders, propagators, and greenhouse growers and horticultural suppliers.

Occupying pride of place is the show’s annual GreenTech Awards which gives place of honour to the most innovative piece of horticultural technology.

GreenTech celebrated its annual awards ceremony on the opening morning of 14 June. A panel of expert judges handed out awards in two categories: Concept and Innovation.

Crowned winner in the Concept category was Organifarms for BERRY, a harvesting robot for strawberries.

Crowned winner in the first category was Organifarms for BERRY, a harvesting robot for strawberries.

In the Innovation category of biocontrols, Biobest from Belgium scooped up the coveted award for Micromus, a generalist predator for protected crops.

The judges praised the holistic, interdisciplinary design approach of the winners. Chairwoman Liselotte de Vries from TU Delft AgTech Institute says: “This year we received submissions with a wide variety, which is exciting to see after the past challenging years. The jury looked at biological, production, and digitization technologies. A selection of these were nominated for the Innovation and Concept Awards.”

She also took the time to laud the winners. “The Concept and Innovation Award laureats won based on their product and also based on their professional presentations. Both presented the jury with a high level of details, based on facts and figures, and a very concrete insight into their product, company and business plans. We encourage future submissions to follow this level of professionalism.”

The judges praised the winner Organifarms, for developing a strawberry-picking robot capable of detecting and assessing the fruit’s position, ripeness, and quality. BERRY allows for a safe harvest of the strawberries, placing them directly into punnets where there are weighed and ready for sale.”

Biobest deserves credit for yet another sustainable tool for the control of pests in protected cropping. Their award-winning brown lacewing Micromus angulatus is a generalist predator feeding on all common aphid species found in protected crops such as vegetables, soft fruit, medicinal cannabis and ornamental crops. Both larvae and adults prey on aphids.

The jury of the GreenTech Innovation Awards 2022 consists of:

• Chairwoman Liselotte de Vries, TU Delft AgTech Institute (Netherlands)
• Silke Hemming, Wageningen University & Research (Germany)
• Peter Zwinkels, Tecknokas (Netherlands)
• Mark Durno, Rockstart (United Kingdom)
• Peet van Adrichem, Horti-Tech B.V. (Netherlands)
• Paul Stoffels, Stoffels Tomaten (Belgium)

The jury’s advisory committee consists of:

• Brian Sparks, Greenhouse Grower (USA)
• Leonardo Capitano, Vivai Capitanio, AIPH vice-president and outgoing ANVE president (Italy)
• Enrico Verhoef, Total Greenhouse Service (Mexico)
• Heinrich Dressler, Haymarket (Germany)

This year’s GreenTech exhibition is returning to its full format for the first time since 2019. In May 2022, FCI talked to RAI director of horticulture Mariska Dreschler about what’s in store.

GreenTech runs until Thursday 16 June. For more information visit www.greentech.nl