A major apple-producing region in northern Japan is tapping the power of artificial intelligence to sort out damaged fruit and cope with a labor shortage.
One apple wholesaler in Hirosaki City in Aomori Prefecture has built a new sorting facility with government support. The site has AI-powered equipment that can screen apples for any damage and assess the extent of it.
Wholesaler Goldnouen says the task has always been handled by veteran workers. But the firm plans to get the AI system up to speed during this year's harvest season, using data from sorting done by hand. They hope the process can be automated from next year.
Goldnouen's Ishioka Shigeyuki says: "By utilizing automation, more apples can be sorted with the same number of people. We aim to comply with the farmers' wish to get them shipped out."
Ishioka says the new equipment will ease the staff's workload, and enable a roughly 20 percent increase in the number of apples boxed in a day.