Harvest blueberries and haskap without a picking crew.
I'm designing a battery-electric harvester for blueberry and haskap farms of 3 to 30 ha. Target: under 1,800 kg, one row, one operator. My cost model suggests that on 15 ha it could cost less than one season of hand picking. That still has to be proven.
Early stage. This winter I'm talking to growers about harvest costs. If the idea holds up, the first field tests are planned for June 2027 on my own haskap rows.
- Mass, empty
- < 1,800 kg
- Ground pressure
- ≤ 0.6 kg/cm²
- Drawing
- Rear view
- The frame straddles the row.
- Shakers loosen the ripe berries.
- Berries fall onto catch plates.
- Conveyors carry them to the crates.
per kilo for hand picking in Poland, with housing, transport and supervision. That's 20–30% of the fresh blueberry price.
Picking is the biggest cost on a berry farm. Pickers are harder to find every year.
Minimum wages rise every year: €1,153 a month in Lithuania in 2026. Polish growers now recruit pickers from Colombia, the Philippines and India, as fewer come from Ukraine.
Today's machines don't fit a family farm. Towed harvesters bruise fruit and tie up a tractor. Self-propelled diesels weigh 4.9 to 7 tonnes. The one fresh-grade electric machine I know of costs €350,000–400,000.
Sources: sadyogrody.pl (2025 picker rates), jagodnik.pl (2026 prices), Lithuanian government minimum-wage decision for 2026, FreshPlaza, manufacturer brochures.
What I'm designing
Design targets, not measured results. Growers who talk to me will see any test results first.
| Target | Why it matters | |
|---|---|---|
| Weight | Under 1,800 kg | Works on soft ground after rain without rutting. |
| Power | Battery-electric, swappable packs | A full day with a charger at the field edge. No fumes, no hydraulic oil above the fruit. |
| Fruit quality | 85% or more fresh-grade | US trials with soft catching surfaces reached 85–93% (USDA-ARS research, Takeda et al.). If the 2027 tests go ahead, I'd like an independent lab to check fruit quality. |
| Crew | 1 person | Drives the machine and swaps crates. |
| Transport width | 2.55 m or less | Moves between fields on a standard trailer. |
| Plantation | Rows about 3 m apart, bushes up to 2.2 m | Different rows? Tell me. The frame will be sized around what growers tell me. |
| Autonomy | Optional upgrade | Row-following can be added later. Not needed to run the machine. |
Four possible formats
One harvesting head on different carriers: for a 4 ha farm with a tractor or a 25 ha farm without one.
| Option | For | Tractor | Crew |
|---|---|---|---|
| Harvest-assist cart | 1–10 ha. Two people with handheld shakers over a catching cart. | No | 2 |
| Towed e-implement | Farms with a 40 hp+ tractor. Electric head powered from the PTO. | Yes | 2 |
| Self-propelled | 10–30 ha, no tractor needed. | No | 1 |
| Harvesting service | Any size. Machine and operator come to you, you pay per hectare. | No | Provided |
These are formats I'm still exploring, from a small harvest-assist cart to a harvesting service. There are no prices yet. Tell me which format would suit your farm.
Cost model: harvesting 1 ha of blueberries for one season
An illustration from my cost model, not measured results. Assumes 7 t/ha and 3 passes; the other assumptions are listed below the chart.
Sources: sadyogrody.pl, jagodnik.pl, Eurostat, ŽŪDC. Machine and service costs are assumptions in my cost model: 8-year depreciation, crew and maintenance.
What if some fruit is damaged?
Damaged fruit goes to processing at a lower price. What the service would still save, according to the model:
| To processing | Modelled saving vs hand picking |
|---|---|
| 0% | 80% |
| 10% | 65% |
| 20% | 50% |
| 35% | 28% |
In the model, the service still saves money until about half the crop is downgraded. Measuring real downgrade is the first goal of any trial.
One machine, May to September
Haskap opens the season, blueberries carry it, currants and aronia fill the gaps.
From idea to your field
Groundwork so far
- My own 2 ha haskap plantation and a tractor
- A desk study of the market and costs
- A draft grower survey in English, Lithuanian and Polish
Plan if validation succeeds (subject to change)
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Oct 2026 – Jan 2027nowConversations and field measurements with growers in Lithuania and Poland.
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June 2027First field tests on my haskap plantation: shakers, catch system, fruit quality.
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July – Aug 2027Harvesting head on blueberries on growers' farms (to be agreed), with quality checks I'd like to run with an independent lab.
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2028First pilot machines on growers' farms and first service runs.
-
2029Series production and CE marking, which unlocks investment subsidy.
I'm looking for growers to talk to
Blueberry, haskap, currant or aronia growers in Lithuania, Latvia or Poland.
You get
- Priority for trials and offers if you help early
- If tests go ahead, a chance to see the harvesting head on your rows
- Any test results and demos first
- A say in the design: row width, crops, power source
I ask
- 45 minutes about your last harvest: costs, rows, problems.
- Optionally, a walk along your rows to measure spacing and headlands.
- No payment, no obligation.
I grow 2 ha of haskap in Lithuania and work as a controls and embedded-systems engineer. The harvest problem isn't theory for me.
Every idea will be tested on my own field first. If it fails on my rows, it won't reach yours.
Vladislav Budiak, founder · LinkedIn
I'm looking for people to work with: a mechanical engineer, an agronomist and someone who knows Polish growers. Get in touch.
Investors and research partners: happy to talk once the grower research is in (early 2027).
Questions growers ask
Can I buy a machine now?
Not yet. Right now I'm asking growers about their harvest. If you'd like to be involved in tests later, leave your contact.
Will it fit my plantation?
I'm designing for rows about 3 m apart, 3 m headlands and bushes up to 2.2 m. Different? Tell me when we talk.
Can I get a subsidy?
In Lithuania, farms get back 50% of the price (70% for young farmers) under the CAP investment measure, once the machine is CE-marked and in series production.
Will it cover currants and aronia?
Currants and aronia are already machine-harvested for processing. I plan to cover them too, so that a service machine has work all season.
Does taking part cost anything?
No. The conversation is free and you're under no obligation.