February 7, 2023 • 24 mins
In this episode of "Let's Talk Farm to Fork", we're joined by Ittai Marom from Tevel, who we'll be talking to about how their flying harvesting robots are a labour shortage solution that is helping increase yields
https://www.tevel-tech.com/
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Episode Transcript
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Voiceover (00:02):
Welcome to let's talk farm to fork, the PostHarvest
podcast that interviews people,making an impact in the fresh
produce sector.
We'll take a deep dive into whatthey do and find out how they're
helping to reduce the amount offood lost or wasted along the
farm to fork journey.
But before we get started, didyou know that according to the
(00:23):
UN's food and agricultureorganisation, around 45% of the
world's fruits and vegetables goto waste each year?
If you would like to learn moreabout how you can practically
play your part in maximisingfruit and vegetable supplies,
whether you're a part of theindustry or simply a consumer
visit PostHarvest.Com and tryout their free online course
(00:45):
library today.
Now time for your host MitchellDenton.
Mitchell Denton (00:50):
Hi there, and welcome to Let's Talk Farm to
Fork.
The PostHarvest podcast thatinterviews people of interest
across the food supply chain.
Today on our show, I'm joined byIttai Marom from Tevel, who I'll
be talking to about how theirflying harvesting robots are a
labour shortage solution thatare helping increase yields.
So with no further delays, let'sget started.
(01:13):
Well, good morning, Ittai.
How are you?
Ittai Marom (01:16):
Good afternoon my time.
I'm good.
How are you, Mitch?
Mitchell Denton (01:19):
I am very well, thank you.
Before we get into it, I justwanted to give you the
opportunity to tell us a littlebit about yourself and what you
do, and maybe a fun fact aboutyourself.
Ittai Marom (01:28):
So, yeah, first of all, thanks for, uh, having me
here.
It's a pleasure.
My name is Ittai Marom.
I'm from Israel, but I'mcurrently living in the US.
And I'm the general manager ofTevel here in the US.
As in many cases with theIsraelis, my early background is
with the military in Israel.
Served there nine yearsfull-time in the Air Force.
(01:49):
After which I did a bachelor'sdegree in physics, took on
several roles in both large andsmall companies in Israel.
Did my MBA in the US and aboutfour years ago, I received call
from an early stage startupworking on this crazy idea of,
uh, using flying robots to pickfruits.
They were looking for a COO, soI joined Tevel in 2019 ah when
(02:15):
we were just a team.
Started the operationsdepartment, took the lead on our
grower relations in Israel andglobally later.
And began, uh, began to learn somuch from these interactions
with growers.
Till about a year ago, we madethis, uh, important step of
starting our US business, andfor which I recently moved here
(02:36):
to manage this side of thecompany's business.
the other thing was a fun factabout myself.
So, I grew up most of my life inIsrael, but now it's actually my
fourth time moving, uh, to theUS.
And over, over the course of mylife, uh, you know, both growing
up and now as an adult, I'vemoved around the globe quite a
(02:57):
lot and, and now with two kidsat home, me and my wife, we joke
around that our, our passportsare like a beginning of a joke,
you know, those"a priest, arabbi, and something, board a
plane", we're a family of fourwith a total of nine different
passports and the kids have nowgrown to move around quite a
bit.
Mitchell Denton (03:17):
Mm mm-hmm.
Ittai Marom (03:18):
So that's me.
Mitchell Denton (03:19):
Yeah.
Wow.
That's quite a bit of travel.
Continuing on from you tellingus what you do, would you mind
telling us a little bit moreabout the history of Tevel and
how your innovative technologyworks?
Ittai Marom (03:29):
Yeah.
So, Tevel was founded a fewyears ago, but the actual story,
our founder and, and CEO uh,Yaniv Maor, he saw this
documentary on TV in Israel, Iwould say 10 years ago.
It was about the lack of fruitpickers in Israel.
And they did sort of thisexperiment, if you wanna call it
that, taking a group of people,sort of throwing them into the
(03:52):
orchard to, uh pick apples forone day.
And at the end of that day inthe show, most of of the people
said they had enough and, uh,you know, we don't wanna do this
anymore for even another day.
Yaniv thought that this, I wouldsay repetitive task, uh, of
picking fruit could be solved bya robotic solution.
(04:13):
But he realised that the levelof technology available those
days needed for this, stillneeds to mature.
So, he held onto the idea, butreally didn't do anything about
it.
And only a few years later withthe improvements in, uh, in GPU
power, uh, graphing theprocessing units and the
advancements in, uh, artificialintelligence, he actually quit
(04:35):
his job in the defense industryto, to start the company and
went on to write the firstpatents for fruit picking,
flying robots.
Mitchell Denton (04:44):
Mmm.
Ittai Marom (04:44):
So, the company was founded, uh, in 2017 and started
with developing the robots andthe algorithms, uh, running
them.
Long story short, five yearslater, uh, we're now at a point
where these flying robots haveevolved into, I would say,
complete solution, a system,which includes, uh, eight
tethered, meaning connectedtethered flying robots, with a
(05:07):
bunch of sensors, allowing themto pick all sorts of fruits,
autonomously.
The robots actually identifyripeness, identify the foliage,
identify obstacles on their way.
They even recognise specificdiseases, and after picking, the
robots place these fruits intothe system and the system itself
delivers those fruits into abin.
Mitchell Denton (05:30):
Yep.
Ittai Marom (05:30):
That's a long story short of what Tevel has done in
the past five years.
Mitchell Denton (05:35):
Yeah.
Fantastic.
I see that Tevel's technology isnot only concerned with
harvesting fruit, but withcollecting harvesting data.
Would you mind explaining to thelisteners what purpose this data
collection serves?
Ittai Marom (05:48):
Um, this actually is something that really blew my
mind, over the past year or sowhen I saw this taking shape
and, and showing the growers,so, obviously we have a system
that is designed to pick apples,but also we expanded its
capabilities into, uh, differentother fruits, stone fruits,
peaches, nectarines, plums,apricots, even pears.
(06:10):
But apart from picking fruitwith the flying robot, which
brings obviously tremendousvalue to the grower in and of
itself, we learned throughdeveloping this capability of
the data, and I'll explain in aminute.
While we're showing it togrowers that this capability is
a game changer, uh, in its ownright.
(06:32):
So it's cool that you pickfruits, but the data that you
give me is so important, whichreally blew my mind.
And, and by the way,accomplishing this, within the
company was a really impressiveachievement by, by our super
sharp R and D people.
What basically we're doing is,as the system picks the fruits
(06:54):
down the road.
Each specific fruit is analysedby the robot that is picking it,
and each fruit is, is actuallygetting an identity.
There's a dashboard, uh, wherewe're consolidating all these
data points, and you can see theactual numbers.
So the actual amount of fruitthat's being picked, the total
(07:14):
weight of the fruits, thedistribution of fruit sizes,
weights.
There's even a heat map that youcan see where in the row, uh,
the fruits were picked from.
Uh, you can, uh, also seecertain diseases or disorders.
So, so when, when you show thisto growers, you understand that
this really opens upunprecedented, I would say
(07:35):
possibilities for the growers,because now each bin, while it's
being picked or while it's beingfilled, sorry, has all the
relevant information about itscontent.
So, you know, to dive in, uh,just a minute or two more just
to explain why this is sorevolutionary.
So, what is happening today isthat, let's say a certain block
(08:00):
of a certain, uh, applevarieties being picked today,
the grower today has no exactnumbers, what this block is
yielding in terms of how manyfruits, what sizes, quality, so
on.
So all these fruits are beingpicked into bins, and now a
bunch of bins are transported tothe packing house, most of them
(08:21):
to refrigeration, by the way.
And yet, even at this point, thegrower has no idea what this
block is yielding.
He will know his bottom linenumbers, uh, later in the
process after all these fruitsgo through the packing house and
into boxes into the market.
But he doesn't know these exactnumbers, and these numbers are
very important in his, you know,value chain, supply chain, to
(08:45):
his bottom numbers even so withthe data that, uh, we provide,
the grower knows at every pointin time during the picking what
his yield is, what sizes he'sgetting, these sizes and quality
really affect his bottom line.
And you can think of morepossibilities here, knowing
diseases, knowing disorders,seeing where they are in the
(09:05):
heat map.
Uh, maybe identify early on, uh,certain trees with problems.
So really the possibilities ofthese data points are endless.
Mitchell Denton (09:17):
Yeah.
That's fantastic.
So then, what's the biggestchallenge your team have
encountered so far with yourinnovative technology and how
did you overcome it?
Or at least how are you lookingto overcome it?
Ittai Marom (09:27):
That's a very good question.
I would say that in an effort,in an endeavor like the one we,
took upon ourselves.
In my eyes, it's one of the mostchallenging robotic applications
in the market.
Obviously in AgTech, butprobably even across, uh, more
industries.
Technological challenges aresomething in, in, in our world,
(09:49):
which are obviously numerous.
There's, there, there have beentons of technological challenges
that we have, have had toovercome.
But I would say that the biggestchallenge by far, really by far,
and, and it sort of connects thedots of all these technological
stuff that we are working on, isactually the development time.
(10:13):
Uh, in other words, it has to dowith funding.
So, we're solving so manychallenges and we're dealing
with so many complexitiessolving this task of picking
fruits with a robot.
Add to that, the fact thatyou're working in a complex
agriculture environment.
Uh, I'm guessing you've beenhearing this from other AgTech
(10:36):
startups.
One of the things that makesAgTech different than other tech
segments is the fact that youcan't just spend your
development time in the lab andafter a while, BOOM! Launch your
product and you're good to go.
It doesn't work that way inAgTech, your product needs to be
developed in the field as muchas possible.
So, with fruit picking you onlyhave a core time window every
(10:59):
year to do all this testing andtweaking in the field.
And this means that thedevelopment time from an idea
concept into a product is, islong.
And the only way to do this forsuch a length of time is to find
the real visionary investors andpeople that share your vision
(11:20):
and have the patience to supportit.
Obviously, together with avisionary, exceptional team in
the company that wants to joinsuch a journey and make it
happen.
So essentially, I would say thatthe biggest challenge is, is
funding for, uh, for a longstretch of time, especially in
our world where we're, uh, Iwould say creating this whole
(11:41):
solution from scratch, uh,something that hasn't been done
before.
By the way, this, this obviouslycreates an extremely high
barrier for entry, but also inmy mind, it makes it that much
exciting, to be involved in sucha, such a journey.
Mitchell Denton (11:57):
Yeah, yeah, definitely.
I find that to actually be sucha great explanation of the
AgTech world.
It's very much, there, there isthe research and development
that takes place in the lab, soto speak, but there really needs
to be that groundwork gettingout in the field.
So, I completely understandwhere you're coming from and a
lot of the other guests on thispodcast completely understand
(12:18):
where you're coming from.
That leads me to ask, what wouldyou say separates your flying
robot technology from otherharvesting alternatives on the
market?
Ittai Marom (12:28):
Yeah, so obviously the easy answer to this is the
fact that as far as we know,we're the only ones, uh, solving
this challenge with flyingrobots.
So that's easy out of yourquestion.
But, but also, I would say thatapart from the flexibility in
using the flying robots, there'sa bunch of other
differentiators, so to speak,whether it's the, the data that
(12:50):
we're providing that we talkedabout or the variety of fruits
we're handling or basically Iwould say making our system
adaptable and using it for asmany different applications as
we can.
Mitchell Denton (13:04):
Okay.
Yeah, perfect.
Labor shortages are obviously anindustry-wide concern and
Tevel's flying robots can be agreat answer to this problem.
I see the pilot program hasexpanded beyond Israel.
Would you mind talking aboutsome of the other countries that
have been involved and how theseprograms have progressed?
Ittai Marom (13:21):
So talking about labour, I think, first it's
important to clear a commonmisconception, uh, that we often
hear as, by the way, otherAgTech companies hear.
People see our solution and oneof the comments we get from
time-to-time is the,"Oh yeah,these guys are all here to take
jobs away from people".
(13:42):
And, I think it's important toclear this misconception because
it couldn't be farther from thetruth.
Uh, the reality is that we'reactually, uh, not just us, any,
any company in the AgTech spaceworking on robotic solutions,
I'll call it stepping into filla void.
There isn't enough labour aroundin Ag and specifically, uh,
(14:02):
where we're targeting in treefruit.
The harvesting part is one ofthe most, or in some cases, the
most labour-intensive task.
So, uh, we're not taking awayjobs, we're just filling in a
void.
Uh, so we're complimenting, uh,labour that isn't there.
But to your question, yes, we'veactually, uh, expanded out of
(14:24):
Israel over the past, uh, yearand a half.
So, in late 2021, apple season2021, we did our first
commercial pilot in Italy with aleading customer there.
And last summer, 2022, was thedebut of our US operations and
we did a similar pilot in theCentral Valley in California
(14:46):
with H C Farms, another leadinggrower.
Uh, later we did the trials inApples in Washington state.
So, for the company, these arereally exciting times.
Uh, over the past year or so,we, we started, you know, doing
our, our first steps, commercialsteps outside of Israel.
Mitchell Denton (15:04):
That's fantastic.
So then what's the biggestrevelation you've uncovered
while working within the AgTechindustry?
Ittai Marom (15:10):
Good question.
Um, if it wasn't apparent fromthe first question, I had
absolutely zero experience inagriculture before I joined
Tevel.
So Tevel was my, uh, my doorinto agriculture and into the
AgTech industry, as well.
And honestly coming in, I hadthis misconception about
(15:32):
agriculture, that it's generallylow tech, uh, traditional
industry.
I had no, uh, I would say, um,assumptions about this industry
being innovative.
But after entering this worldand, and knowing growers and
understanding the industry anddon't get me wrong, me and the
(15:52):
company and the team, we'relearning every day about the
industry.
So, I learned that growers,although, you know, the, the
average grower might not be themost, uh, tech-savvy individual.
They are so much into data andthey're right on top of their
numbers, I would say.
And this really makes themprimed for all these, uh,
(16:14):
solutions are among, among them,but growers are so ready to, uh,
adopt and embrace solutionsbecause they're there, they
understand the importance.
They're on top of their data andnumbers, and this was, this was
a real surprise to me.
Mitchell Denton (16:32):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay.
You, you mentioned earlier,Tevel filling the void of the
labour shortages, beyond theobvious.
I just wanted to ask you, whatwould you identify as being one
of the biggest pain points inthe food industry?
Ittai Marom (16:45):
Yeah, so, so obviously, uh, uh, labour has
its multifaceted aspects butapart from labour, it has to do
with that.
But I would say that the Agindustry as a whole with world
population growing and the needto feed everyone, everyone knows
that the Ag industry globallywill need to produce more and
more every year, maybeexponentially, more and more
(17:08):
every year.
And there's simply no way to dothat in the traditional ways
we've done that.
So, producing that much morefood for an exponentially
growing population on thisplanet can only be achieved with
robotics and autonomoussolutions up and down the value
(17:28):
chain, that I would say.
I mean, it's, it, it's not justsolutions like ours picking
fruits.
It's, it's robots and autonomousmachines tackling every known
test to man in agriculture.
That I would say is the biggestchallenge or biggest pain point
for the industry.
Mitchell Denton (17:48):
Yeah, absolutely.
You mentioned at the start thatTevel was founded back in 2017.
Obviously you had no idea thatthe Covid pandemic was just
around the corner for, forbetter or worse, did the Covid
pandemic have any effect on yourday-to-day operations?
Ittai Marom (18:03):
Less on the day-to-day operations, I would
say.
Back in Israel, we weredesignated an essential company,
so we were able to, uh, stayopen for much of the, uh
shutdowns, or closures we hadback in Israel.
You know, every country had itsown regulations, but we were
able to stay open.
I would say even more that welearned in Covid that the trend
(18:27):
to go remote is something thatdoesn't work for us.
We had to move into a remoteenvironment, uh, just a few
times and we realised that thepower of our team being together
and developing together acrossdifferent departments is it's
key to keep developing theproduct.
Obviously we had supply chainissues like everybody else.
(18:49):
We did overcome them initiallyby ordering things early.
And obviously when you talkCovid in the ag industry,
everybody understands that thisonly, uh, you know, exacerbated
the labour shortage and made theneed for solutions like ours to
be even more apparent.
Mitchell Denton (19:09):
Yeah, absolutely.
So then, is there a particulargroup or innovation within the
industry that you're excitedlykeeping a watchful eye on?
Ittai Marom (19:17):
I would say that I wouldn't call them a group, but
the most interesting growers atthis point in time are those
early adopters, the growers,which are those forward thinkers
that understand that thechallenge is here.
The problem is here.
Solutions like ours areessentially required at this
(19:40):
point in time.
And these are the ones thatwe're following and in touch
with, and these are also theones that are sharing all their
Information and, and theirperspective on their business.
And these are actually our bestpartners.
These are really design partnersthat we're working with, helping
(20:01):
us advance our solution.
Because you said innovation, Ican't not think about Israel as
a hub of innovation and the homeof so many startups, as you
probably know, and, andespecially in AgTech, so a lot
of AgTech startups are hailingfrom Israel.
and some of them are, havebecome friends of ours, so we
know a lot of them.
(20:21):
And by the way, mid-February,there's a very big expo in
Tulare, California where we're,uh, exhibiting along with many
others.
And we've actually, uh, receiveda very prestigious award there
in the top 10 products.
And out of these top 10products, three products are
from companies hailing fromIsrael.
(20:42):
So, it's a real testament towhat Israel has provided us in,
in, in our world.
The, the fact that so many cropsare grown in such a small
geography like Israel reallyhelps companies like us in
AgTech to develop their productsin proximity to the offices.
And part of this is the factthat the Israel Innovation
(21:04):
Authority, it's a governmentbranch, very innovative, as far
as their name goes.
They're, uh, they've supportedus throughout the years and I
would say, we owe them a lot ofgratitude.
Looking at where we've come, uh,these years
Mitchell Denton (21:20):
That's fantastic.
Yeah, there's been a lot ofgreat innovation coming out of
Israel.
We've had a few podcast guestsactually recently from Israel
and the things that they'redoing, it's, it's quite
fascinating.
But beyond that, we've foundthat there's a great community,
uh, around the innovation that'shappening in Israel.
There's a lot of supporthappening there as well, which
is really cool to see.
(21:41):
That being said, what's onething you wish you had known
when you began your career indeveloping autonomous harvesting
robots?
Ittai Marom (21:48):
I would say that growers, farmers are hungry for
data and are driven by data morethan I had expected.
And as I said, they aren't astraditional as I thought.
Another thing is that thecomplexity of solving the
challenges that we're facing andhow many departments, how many
(22:09):
disciplines, how manyprofessions, how much know-how
is needed to work together inclose cooperation to succeed and
to develop is something that,uh, you know, I thought it was,
I thought it was complex, Ididn't, uh, realise how much.
Mitchell Denton (22:27):
Yeah, definitely.
So, Ittai, we are coming to aclose, but before we do, I just
wanted to ask you, what is themain point you really want the
listeners to take away from thisepisode?
Ittai Marom (22:38):
I would say simply that everything is possible.
That what looks at first, like acrazy, out of this world
solution or product or system,if you get around yourself a
dedicated out of this world, uh,team of exceptional individuals
(22:58):
working together, you can tackleany challenge and essentially
the sky is the limit, when youput your mind to it with the
right group of people.
Mitchell Denton (23:06):
Yeah, that's great.
Just another example of thecommunity spirit coming out of
Israel's innovation.
Well, that's all for today'sepisode of Let's Talk Farm to
Fork.
Thanks for listening, and thankyou Ittai for joining me today.
Ittai Marom (23:19):
My pleasure.
Thank you for having me.
Mitchell Denton (23:21):
If you'd like to know more about Ittai and
Tevel, check out the link thanthe description of this episode,
make sure to subscribe to thepodcast so that you never miss
an episode, and don't forget toleave a review and share with
your friends.
Until next time, you've beenlistening to Let's Talk Farm to
Fork, a PostHarvest podcast.
Voiceover (23:37):
We appreciate you joining us for this episode of
let's talk, farm to fork, besure to rate, review and
subscribe.
Also, if you would like to learnmore about how you can
practically play your part inmaximizing fruit and vegetable
supplies, whether you're asupplier, consumer, or anyone in
between the farm to forkjourney, visit PostHarvest.Com
(24:00):
and try out their free onlinecourse library today.
Welcome to let's talk farm to fork, the PostHarvest
podcast that interviews people,making an impact in the fresh
produce sector.
We'll take a deep dive into whatthey do and find out how they're
helping to reduce the amount offood lost or wasted along the
farm to fork journey.
But before we get started, didyou know that according to the
(00:23):
UN's food and agricultureorganisation, around 45% of the
world's fruits and vegetables goto waste each year?
If you would like to learn moreabout how you can practically
play your part in maximisingfruit and vegetable supplies,
whether you're a part of theindustry or simply a consumer
visit PostHarvest.Com and tryout their free online course
(00:45):
library today.
Now time for your host MitchellDenton.
Mitchell Denton (00:50):
Hi there, and welcome to Let's Talk Farm to
Fork.
The PostHarvest podcast thatinterviews people of interest
across the food supply chain.
Today on our show, I'm joined byIttai Marom from Tevel, who I'll
be talking to about how theirflying harvesting robots are a
labour shortage solution thatare helping increase yields.
So with no further delays, let'sget started.
(01:13):
Well, good morning, Ittai.
How are you?
Ittai Marom (01:16):
Good afternoon my time.
I'm good.
How are you, Mitch?
Mitchell Denton (01:19):
I am very well, thank you.
Before we get into it, I justwanted to give you the
opportunity to tell us a littlebit about yourself and what you
do, and maybe a fun fact aboutyourself.
Ittai Marom (01:28):
So, yeah, first of all, thanks for, uh, having me
here.
It's a pleasure.
My name is Ittai Marom.
I'm from Israel, but I'mcurrently living in the US.
And I'm the general manager ofTevel here in the US.
As in many cases with theIsraelis, my early background is
with the military in Israel.
Served there nine yearsfull-time in the Air Force.
(01:49):
After which I did a bachelor'sdegree in physics, took on
several roles in both large andsmall companies in Israel.
Did my MBA in the US and aboutfour years ago, I received call
from an early stage startupworking on this crazy idea of,
uh, using flying robots to pickfruits.
They were looking for a COO, soI joined Tevel in 2019 ah when
(02:15):
we were just a team.
Started the operationsdepartment, took the lead on our
grower relations in Israel andglobally later.
And began, uh, began to learn somuch from these interactions
with growers.
Till about a year ago, we madethis, uh, important step of
starting our US business, andfor which I recently moved here
(02:36):
to manage this side of thecompany's business.
the other thing was a fun factabout myself.
So, I grew up most of my life inIsrael, but now it's actually my
fourth time moving, uh, to theUS.
And over, over the course of mylife, uh, you know, both growing
up and now as an adult, I'vemoved around the globe quite a
(02:57):
lot and, and now with two kidsat home, me and my wife, we joke
around that our, our passportsare like a beginning of a joke,
you know, those"a priest, arabbi, and something, board a
plane", we're a family of fourwith a total of nine different
passports and the kids have nowgrown to move around quite a
bit.
Mitchell Denton (03:17):
Mm mm-hmm.
Ittai Marom (03:18):
So that's me.
Mitchell Denton (03:19):
Yeah.
Wow.
That's quite a bit of travel.
Continuing on from you tellingus what you do, would you mind
telling us a little bit moreabout the history of Tevel and
how your innovative technologyworks?
Ittai Marom (03:29):
Yeah.
So, Tevel was founded a fewyears ago, but the actual story,
our founder and, and CEO uh,Yaniv Maor, he saw this
documentary on TV in Israel, Iwould say 10 years ago.
It was about the lack of fruitpickers in Israel.
And they did sort of thisexperiment, if you wanna call it
that, taking a group of people,sort of throwing them into the
(03:52):
orchard to, uh pick apples forone day.
And at the end of that day inthe show, most of of the people
said they had enough and, uh,you know, we don't wanna do this
anymore for even another day.
Yaniv thought that this, I wouldsay repetitive task, uh, of
picking fruit could be solved bya robotic solution.
(04:13):
But he realised that the levelof technology available those
days needed for this, stillneeds to mature.
So, he held onto the idea, butreally didn't do anything about
it.
And only a few years later withthe improvements in, uh, in GPU
power, uh, graphing theprocessing units and the
advancements in, uh, artificialintelligence, he actually quit
(04:35):
his job in the defense industryto, to start the company and
went on to write the firstpatents for fruit picking,
flying robots.
Mitchell Denton (04:44):
Mmm.
Ittai Marom (04:44):
So, the company was founded, uh, in 2017 and started
with developing the robots andthe algorithms, uh, running
them.
Long story short, five yearslater, uh, we're now at a point
where these flying robots haveevolved into, I would say,
complete solution, a system,which includes, uh, eight
tethered, meaning connectedtethered flying robots, with a
(05:07):
bunch of sensors, allowing themto pick all sorts of fruits,
autonomously.
The robots actually identifyripeness, identify the foliage,
identify obstacles on their way.
They even recognise specificdiseases, and after picking, the
robots place these fruits intothe system and the system itself
delivers those fruits into abin.
Mitchell Denton (05:30):
Yep.
Ittai Marom (05:30):
That's a long story short of what Tevel has done in
the past five years.
Mitchell Denton (05:35):
Yeah.
Fantastic.
I see that Tevel's technology isnot only concerned with
harvesting fruit, but withcollecting harvesting data.
Would you mind explaining to thelisteners what purpose this data
collection serves?
Ittai Marom (05:48):
Um, this actually is something that really blew my
mind, over the past year or sowhen I saw this taking shape
and, and showing the growers,so, obviously we have a system
that is designed to pick apples,but also we expanded its
capabilities into, uh, differentother fruits, stone fruits,
peaches, nectarines, plums,apricots, even pears.
(06:10):
But apart from picking fruitwith the flying robot, which
brings obviously tremendousvalue to the grower in and of
itself, we learned throughdeveloping this capability of
the data, and I'll explain in aminute.
While we're showing it togrowers that this capability is
a game changer, uh, in its ownright.
(06:32):
So it's cool that you pickfruits, but the data that you
give me is so important, whichreally blew my mind.
And, and by the way,accomplishing this, within the
company was a really impressiveachievement by, by our super
sharp R and D people.
What basically we're doing is,as the system picks the fruits
(06:54):
down the road.
Each specific fruit is analysedby the robot that is picking it,
and each fruit is, is actuallygetting an identity.
There's a dashboard, uh, wherewe're consolidating all these
data points, and you can see theactual numbers.
So the actual amount of fruitthat's being picked, the total
(07:14):
weight of the fruits, thedistribution of fruit sizes,
weights.
There's even a heat map that youcan see where in the row, uh,
the fruits were picked from.
Uh, you can, uh, also seecertain diseases or disorders.
So, so when, when you show thisto growers, you understand that
this really opens upunprecedented, I would say
(07:35):
possibilities for the growers,because now each bin, while it's
being picked or while it's beingfilled, sorry, has all the
relevant information about itscontent.
So, you know, to dive in, uh,just a minute or two more just
to explain why this is sorevolutionary.
So, what is happening today isthat, let's say a certain block
(08:00):
of a certain, uh, applevarieties being picked today,
the grower today has no exactnumbers, what this block is
yielding in terms of how manyfruits, what sizes, quality, so
on.
So all these fruits are beingpicked into bins, and now a
bunch of bins are transported tothe packing house, most of them
(08:21):
to refrigeration, by the way.
And yet, even at this point, thegrower has no idea what this
block is yielding.
He will know his bottom linenumbers, uh, later in the
process after all these fruitsgo through the packing house and
into boxes into the market.
But he doesn't know these exactnumbers, and these numbers are
very important in his, you know,value chain, supply chain, to
(08:45):
his bottom numbers even so withthe data that, uh, we provide,
the grower knows at every pointin time during the picking what
his yield is, what sizes he'sgetting, these sizes and quality
really affect his bottom line.
And you can think of morepossibilities here, knowing
diseases, knowing disorders,seeing where they are in the
(09:05):
heat map.
Uh, maybe identify early on, uh,certain trees with problems.
So really the possibilities ofthese data points are endless.
Mitchell Denton (09:17):
Yeah.
That's fantastic.
So then, what's the biggestchallenge your team have
encountered so far with yourinnovative technology and how
did you overcome it?
Or at least how are you lookingto overcome it?
Ittai Marom (09:27):
That's a very good question.
I would say that in an effort,in an endeavor like the one we,
took upon ourselves.
In my eyes, it's one of the mostchallenging robotic applications
in the market.
Obviously in AgTech, butprobably even across, uh, more
industries.
Technological challenges aresomething in, in, in our world,
(09:49):
which are obviously numerous.
There's, there, there have beentons of technological challenges
that we have, have had toovercome.
But I would say that the biggestchallenge by far, really by far,
and, and it sort of connects thedots of all these technological
stuff that we are working on, isactually the development time.
(10:13):
Uh, in other words, it has to dowith funding.
So, we're solving so manychallenges and we're dealing
with so many complexitiessolving this task of picking
fruits with a robot.
Add to that, the fact thatyou're working in a complex
agriculture environment.
Uh, I'm guessing you've beenhearing this from other AgTech
(10:36):
startups.
One of the things that makesAgTech different than other tech
segments is the fact that youcan't just spend your
development time in the lab andafter a while, BOOM! Launch your
product and you're good to go.
It doesn't work that way inAgTech, your product needs to be
developed in the field as muchas possible.
So, with fruit picking you onlyhave a core time window every
(10:59):
year to do all this testing andtweaking in the field.
And this means that thedevelopment time from an idea
concept into a product is, islong.
And the only way to do this forsuch a length of time is to find
the real visionary investors andpeople that share your vision
(11:20):
and have the patience to supportit.
Obviously, together with avisionary, exceptional team in
the company that wants to joinsuch a journey and make it
happen.
So essentially, I would say thatthe biggest challenge is, is
funding for, uh, for a longstretch of time, especially in
our world where we're, uh, Iwould say creating this whole
(11:41):
solution from scratch, uh,something that hasn't been done
before.
By the way, this, this obviouslycreates an extremely high
barrier for entry, but also inmy mind, it makes it that much
exciting, to be involved in sucha, such a journey.
Mitchell Denton (11:57):
Yeah, yeah, definitely.
I find that to actually be sucha great explanation of the
AgTech world.
It's very much, there, there isthe research and development
that takes place in the lab, soto speak, but there really needs
to be that groundwork gettingout in the field.
So, I completely understandwhere you're coming from and a
lot of the other guests on thispodcast completely understand
(12:18):
where you're coming from.
That leads me to ask, what wouldyou say separates your flying
robot technology from otherharvesting alternatives on the
market?
Ittai Marom (12:28):
Yeah, so obviously the easy answer to this is the
fact that as far as we know,we're the only ones, uh, solving
this challenge with flyingrobots.
So that's easy out of yourquestion.
But, but also, I would say thatapart from the flexibility in
using the flying robots, there'sa bunch of other
differentiators, so to speak,whether it's the, the data that
(12:50):
we're providing that we talkedabout or the variety of fruits
we're handling or basically Iwould say making our system
adaptable and using it for asmany different applications as
we can.
Mitchell Denton (13:04):
Okay.
Yeah, perfect.
Labor shortages are obviously anindustry-wide concern and
Tevel's flying robots can be agreat answer to this problem.
I see the pilot program hasexpanded beyond Israel.
Would you mind talking aboutsome of the other countries that
have been involved and how theseprograms have progressed?
Ittai Marom (13:21):
So talking about labour, I think, first it's
important to clear a commonmisconception, uh, that we often
hear as, by the way, otherAgTech companies hear.
People see our solution and oneof the comments we get from
time-to-time is the,"Oh yeah,these guys are all here to take
jobs away from people".
(13:42):
And, I think it's important toclear this misconception because
it couldn't be farther from thetruth.
Uh, the reality is that we'reactually, uh, not just us, any,
any company in the AgTech spaceworking on robotic solutions,
I'll call it stepping into filla void.
There isn't enough labour aroundin Ag and specifically, uh,
(14:02):
where we're targeting in treefruit.
The harvesting part is one ofthe most, or in some cases, the
most labour-intensive task.
So, uh, we're not taking awayjobs, we're just filling in a
void.
Uh, so we're complimenting, uh,labour that isn't there.
But to your question, yes, we'veactually, uh, expanded out of
(14:24):
Israel over the past, uh, yearand a half.
So, in late 2021, apple season2021, we did our first
commercial pilot in Italy with aleading customer there.
And last summer, 2022, was thedebut of our US operations and
we did a similar pilot in theCentral Valley in California
(14:46):
with H C Farms, another leadinggrower.
Uh, later we did the trials inApples in Washington state.
So, for the company, these arereally exciting times.
Uh, over the past year or so,we, we started, you know, doing
our, our first steps, commercialsteps outside of Israel.
Mitchell Denton (15:04):
That's fantastic.
So then what's the biggestrevelation you've uncovered
while working within the AgTechindustry?
Ittai Marom (15:10):
Good question.
Um, if it wasn't apparent fromthe first question, I had
absolutely zero experience inagriculture before I joined
Tevel.
So Tevel was my, uh, my doorinto agriculture and into the
AgTech industry, as well.
And honestly coming in, I hadthis misconception about
(15:32):
agriculture, that it's generallylow tech, uh, traditional
industry.
I had no, uh, I would say, um,assumptions about this industry
being innovative.
But after entering this worldand, and knowing growers and
understanding the industry anddon't get me wrong, me and the
(15:52):
company and the team, we'relearning every day about the
industry.
So, I learned that growers,although, you know, the, the
average grower might not be themost, uh, tech-savvy individual.
They are so much into data andthey're right on top of their
numbers, I would say.
And this really makes themprimed for all these, uh,
(16:14):
solutions are among, among them,but growers are so ready to, uh,
adopt and embrace solutionsbecause they're there, they
understand the importance.
They're on top of their data andnumbers, and this was, this was
a real surprise to me.
Mitchell Denton (16:32):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay.
You, you mentioned earlier,Tevel filling the void of the
labour shortages, beyond theobvious.
I just wanted to ask you, whatwould you identify as being one
of the biggest pain points inthe food industry?
Ittai Marom (16:45):
Yeah, so, so obviously, uh, uh, labour has
its multifaceted aspects butapart from labour, it has to do
with that.
But I would say that the Agindustry as a whole with world
population growing and the needto feed everyone, everyone knows
that the Ag industry globallywill need to produce more and
more every year, maybeexponentially, more and more
(17:08):
every year.
And there's simply no way to dothat in the traditional ways
we've done that.
So, producing that much morefood for an exponentially
growing population on thisplanet can only be achieved with
robotics and autonomoussolutions up and down the value
(17:28):
chain, that I would say.
I mean, it's, it, it's not justsolutions like ours picking
fruits.
It's, it's robots and autonomousmachines tackling every known
test to man in agriculture.
That I would say is the biggestchallenge or biggest pain point
for the industry.
Mitchell Denton (17:48):
Yeah, absolutely.
You mentioned at the start thatTevel was founded back in 2017.
Obviously you had no idea thatthe Covid pandemic was just
around the corner for, forbetter or worse, did the Covid
pandemic have any effect on yourday-to-day operations?
Ittai Marom (18:03):
Less on the day-to-day operations, I would
say.
Back in Israel, we weredesignated an essential company,
so we were able to, uh, stayopen for much of the, uh
shutdowns, or closures we hadback in Israel.
You know, every country had itsown regulations, but we were
able to stay open.
I would say even more that welearned in Covid that the trend
(18:27):
to go remote is something thatdoesn't work for us.
We had to move into a remoteenvironment, uh, just a few
times and we realised that thepower of our team being together
and developing together acrossdifferent departments is it's
key to keep developing theproduct.
Obviously we had supply chainissues like everybody else.
(18:49):
We did overcome them initiallyby ordering things early.
And obviously when you talkCovid in the ag industry,
everybody understands that thisonly, uh, you know, exacerbated
the labour shortage and made theneed for solutions like ours to
be even more apparent.
Mitchell Denton (19:09):
Yeah, absolutely.
So then, is there a particulargroup or innovation within the
industry that you're excitedlykeeping a watchful eye on?
Ittai Marom (19:17):
I would say that I wouldn't call them a group, but
the most interesting growers atthis point in time are those
early adopters, the growers,which are those forward thinkers
that understand that thechallenge is here.
The problem is here.
Solutions like ours areessentially required at this
(19:40):
point in time.
And these are the ones thatwe're following and in touch
with, and these are also theones that are sharing all their
Information and, and theirperspective on their business.
And these are actually our bestpartners.
These are really design partnersthat we're working with, helping
(20:01):
us advance our solution.
Because you said innovation, Ican't not think about Israel as
a hub of innovation and the homeof so many startups, as you
probably know, and, andespecially in AgTech, so a lot
of AgTech startups are hailingfrom Israel.
and some of them are, havebecome friends of ours, so we
know a lot of them.
(20:21):
And by the way, mid-February,there's a very big expo in
Tulare, California where we're,uh, exhibiting along with many
others.
And we've actually, uh, receiveda very prestigious award there
in the top 10 products.
And out of these top 10products, three products are
from companies hailing fromIsrael.
(20:42):
So, it's a real testament towhat Israel has provided us in,
in, in our world.
The, the fact that so many cropsare grown in such a small
geography like Israel reallyhelps companies like us in
AgTech to develop their productsin proximity to the offices.
And part of this is the factthat the Israel Innovation
(21:04):
Authority, it's a governmentbranch, very innovative, as far
as their name goes.
They're, uh, they've supportedus throughout the years and I
would say, we owe them a lot ofgratitude.
Looking at where we've come, uh,these years
Mitchell Denton (21:20):
That's fantastic.
Yeah, there's been a lot ofgreat innovation coming out of
Israel.
We've had a few podcast guestsactually recently from Israel
and the things that they'redoing, it's, it's quite
fascinating.
But beyond that, we've foundthat there's a great community,
uh, around the innovation that'shappening in Israel.
There's a lot of supporthappening there as well, which
is really cool to see.
(21:41):
That being said, what's onething you wish you had known
when you began your career indeveloping autonomous harvesting
robots?
Ittai Marom (21:48):
I would say that growers, farmers are hungry for
data and are driven by data morethan I had expected.
And as I said, they aren't astraditional as I thought.
Another thing is that thecomplexity of solving the
challenges that we're facing andhow many departments, how many
(22:09):
disciplines, how manyprofessions, how much know-how
is needed to work together inclose cooperation to succeed and
to develop is something that,uh, you know, I thought it was,
I thought it was complex, Ididn't, uh, realise how much.
Mitchell Denton (22:27):
Yeah, definitely.
So, Ittai, we are coming to aclose, but before we do, I just
wanted to ask you, what is themain point you really want the
listeners to take away from thisepisode?
Ittai Marom (22:38):
I would say simply that everything is possible.
That what looks at first, like acrazy, out of this world
solution or product or system,if you get around yourself a
dedicated out of this world, uh,team of exceptional individuals
(22:58):
working together, you can tackleany challenge and essentially
the sky is the limit, when youput your mind to it with the
right group of people.
Mitchell Denton (23:06):
Yeah, that's great.
Just another example of thecommunity spirit coming out of
Israel's innovation.
Well, that's all for today'sepisode of Let's Talk Farm to
Fork.
Thanks for listening, and thankyou Ittai for joining me today.
Ittai Marom (23:19):
My pleasure.
Thank you for having me.
Mitchell Denton (23:21):
If you'd like to know more about Ittai and
Tevel, check out the link thanthe description of this episode,
make sure to subscribe to thepodcast so that you never miss
an episode, and don't forget toleave a review and share with
your friends.
Until next time, you've beenlistening to Let's Talk Farm to
Fork, a PostHarvest podcast.
Voiceover (23:37):
We appreciate you joining us for this episode of
let's talk, farm to fork, besure to rate, review and
subscribe.
Also, if you would like to learnmore about how you can
practically play your part inmaximizing fruit and vegetable
supplies, whether you're asupplier, consumer, or anyone in
between the farm to forkjourney, visit PostHarvest.Com
(24:00):
and try out their free onlinecourse library today.
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