4AG Robotics CEO Sean O'Connor adjusts a suction cup on the company's mushroom-picking robot in Salmon Arm, B.C. on Dec. 21, 2024.A robot scales aluminum shelves filled with mushrooms growing in a mix of soil and peat moss at a warehouse in the small B.C. town of Salmon Arm.
These two technologies, from different parts of Canada, have been deployed to farms around the world in the effort to automate mushroom harvesting. The technique entered the marketplace in the 1980s and led to expanded production and increased efficiency. Mushrooms don’t photosynthesize, which means they can be grown indoors away from unpredictable weather, and they can be stacked so land costs are minimized.
the world, including in Ireland, Canada, the Netherlands, Australia and the United States. The farms are testing the technology and within the next year will decide whether to double down and outfit entire warehouses at a cost of $20-million to $30-million each, Mr. O’Connor said. “We ended up in a situation where the customer is essentially told to buy an expensive machine that doesn’t perform at the same level as a human can,” said Stefan Glibetic, chief engineer and chief technology officer at Mycionics.
This system, however, requires farmers to abandon existing infrastructure and rebuild their warehouses.