The mushroom machine is a ‘gamechanger’

Based in Lisburn, The Mushroom Machine Company Ltd has pioneered the development of a semi-robotic mushroom harvesting aid that increases the speed of picking mushrooms, doubling or tripling the existing production speeds.

The mushroom machine Gamechanger follows more than seven years of research and development and the production of numerous prototypes by inventor and owner of The Mushroom Machine Company Ltd, Alan Edwards.

It combines increasing mushroom harvesting performance, trimming the stalk at the correct specified length, de-nesting the punnets, placing the mushrooms in the punnets, correctly weighing the product and ejecting the punnets.

The system is unique in that it is compact, powered by batteries, fits into existing infrastructure within minutes and captures all the picking data and transfers it to a central management data source.

With a marked reduction of waste and improved picking techniques there should be an increase in harvest yield of around 20%. It also allows novice pickers to hit economic picking speeds in days rather than the months as is common at present.

The Gamechanger comes with its own machine lift and personnel lift to allow working at height in mushroom houses equipped with dutch shelving. It caters for several punnet sizes and handles button mushrooms, medium cups as well as larger mushrooms.

Already, Gamechangers have been dispatched to grower’s sites on mainland UK, Northern Ireland, Ireland, Japan, Australia, Lithuania, Poland and North America. Several machines of the newer version that cater for larger boxes and trays will be dispatched to North America in the coming months.

Alan explained: “We are excited to have a product that is truly unique, with worldwide potential and will dramatically change the way mushrooms are harvested throughout the world.

“With invitations to demonstrate Gamechangers in numerous countries throughout Europe and North America in the next few months, sales and production is expected to grow dramatically before the end of the year.

“The mushroom industry feeds and employs tens of thousands of people throughout the world. Mushrooms are one of the most nutritious foods and they are grown 12 months of the year in large tunnels or rooms. Picking rates average around 25kgs per hour and the Gamechanger can cater for picking rates of around 100kgs per hour. This should allow growers to expand production and it will certainly help ease problems associated with the ongoing labour shortages.”

Invest Northern Ireland and Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council have helped in providing research and development and marketing programs over the past years. A team of dedicated professionals in engineering, electronics, software and system troubleshooting as well as the active collaboration of mushroom growers throughout Ireland has made this breakthrough in technology possible.