Eternal.Ag Scales Autonomous Harvesting Robots With First Commercial Grower Deployment

(MENAFN- Robotics & Automation News) The German agritech startup eternal has deployed its fully-autonomous greenhouse harvesting robot, Harvester, to the Dutch grower, Van Noord Growers, as part of a long-term agreement.

Van Noord Growers, located in Zeeland in the Netherlands, produces both tomatoes and cucumbers across a total 8.5-hectare site. It has been operating the Harvester robot, specialized in truss tomatoes, since September 2025 and is now set to expand its fleet to a total of three this summer following a successful initial period.

With eternal's plug and play approach, the Harvester has been integrated into Van Noord's operations from day one. The fully-autonomous Harvester is designed to operate for up to 22 hours per day, 7 days a week, and harvests trusses using an AI layer to ensure ripeness, consistency and clean cutting.

Eternal publicly announced the launch of the Harvester in March after the company emerged from stealth mode.

Van Noord Growers is one of many greenhouse growers feeling the impact of structural labor shortages which are affecting the horticulture industry globally.

While its first Harvester is currently working alongside existing human workers, the grower has begun the process of automating to prepare for a future when manual labor is no longer available at the needed scale.

The deployment at Van Noord Growers marks the first step of eternal's international scaling plans.

Jeffry Van Noord (main picture), co-owner of Van Noord Growers, said:“We grow a high-quality product and pride ourselves on that. That makes our crops and our customers top priority.

“Eternal's approach to the labor crisis fully aligns with our needs as, over the next 10 to 15 years, we anticipate labor will become so short that most of our operations will need to be automated. That's why we are already scaling automation and intend to extend this across other greenhouse functions and crops.”

Renji John, CEO and co-founder of eternal, said:“Scaling our first commercial deployment is a significant milestone for eternal and shows that our robots are able to perform at expected levels in real-world environments. This is one of the most technically difficult challenges in agricultural robotics due to crop and environment variability.

“Van Noord Growers' appetite to expand the deployment to three Harvesters serves as a clear indication of their confidence in our solution and in the potential of automation.”

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