Setback
Advanced Farm closed for lack of funding, laid off its team and cancelled its 2025 apple season in Washington.
A delay, pause or setback
What the source says
“closed its doors last week and scuttled plans for a 2025 harvest season in Washington.”
What it means
Strawberry and apple harvesting robots, from Advanced Farm Technologies (assets bought by CNH in 2025), is at stage 4 of 5 on our ladder: paying customers. A setback stays on the record next to the milestones; the stage moves down only when the rules say so.
Human help: The maker hasn't said whether people help it remotely.
More on Strawberry and apple harvesting robots
- CNH agreed to buy Advanced Farm's assets and intellectual property; most of the technical team was to join CNH.
- For a third year the apple robot was tried in Washington orchards, with two machines working for eight orchard companies, including Columbia Fruit Packers.
- CNH, the farm-machinery maker, took a minority stake in Advanced Farm.
- After its first strawberry machine, the company brought out an apple harvester for orchards in Washington state.
- Advanced Farm said it had worked with large strawberry growers including GoodFarms, Oppy and Naturipe.
- It raised $25 million more, saying the money would help adapt its robot to picking apples.