California-based agribusiness Sun World International has revealed it is making use of analytics tools supplied by technology multinational IBM to improve crop yields, reduce waste and expand its customer base, as well as providing more cost-effective and energy-efficient harvesting practices.
Sun World, which operates one of the world’s leading proprietary produce variety development programmes – generating more than 60 commercial varieties so far – grows an array of table grape, pepper, stonefruit and citrus varieties on almost 5,000ha of farmland across California.
'Facing ever-changing variables in consumer trends, weather, labour, fuel costs and water management, Sun World turned to IBM and Applied Analytix for a solution to better collect, track, interpret and disseminate real time information on everything from crop management to managing sales – while maintaining top quality and controlling cost throughout their supply chain,' the company said in a statement.
According to the group, the new tools are helping the company redefine its business and introduce innovative practices, replacing manual processes that it said made it difficult to deliver a timely, company-wide view of information that could help it make decisions.
IBM's analytics solution is said to enable Sun World to make more accurate and faster predictions in relation to crop yields, farm labour costs, water usage, growing patterns and a wide range of sales and distribution processes.
'We've aimed to transform the company culture from a farming business where you 'grow and hope for the best' to one that uses information analytics to provide an accurate measurement of the business,' commented Sun World’s director of budgets and reporting, Steve Greenwood.
'Before, we didn't know until 30 days after the month how our harvest costs were trending,' he continued. 'By that time, it was too late to start financial planning because the crops had already been harvested. We've turned raw data into business insight, improved our order fill rates, and have gone from being a reactive company to a proactive company.'
More details will be published in the September issue of Eurofruit Magazine. To reserve your copy, please contact:
Naqib Khan
Subscriptions manager
+44 20 7501 3714
naqib@fruitnet.com
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