In New Zealand, as is the case everywhere, the main impediments to adoption of technology are cost, access, and expertise. However, whether it's robotics or artificial intelligence (AI), adoption of new technology is usually quite high; provided, of course, it makes a tangible difference to the operation.

A recent example is T&G Global using a robotic harvester for the commercial apple harvest this season; a world-first. This took four years of working with US-based technology partner Abundant Robotics to develop the tech, as well as designing new orchard layouts to enable this robotic picking. T&G's Chief Operating Officer, Peter Langdon-Lane, has noted that it will be some years before all T&G orchards are harvested in this way, but the key point is that this is the start of robotics becoming genuinely useful in picking.

There are some significant advantages to picking apples with robots. The first is that these robots can pick at night, meaning there can be round the clock picking, and picking at exactly the right time is vital to maintain fruit quality and get premium prices overseas.

Additionally, robotic pickers can be used to supplement humans not just at night, but at higher, hard to reach parts of the trees. This would mean human pickers wouldn't need to use ladders, and could concentrate on the apples closer to the ground. And, of course, new employment opportunities will be opened up to build and maintain these robots.

There are New Zealand and Australian initiatives to develop robotics for horticulture's work, and New Zealand is a world leader in the development of packhouse mechanisation. This is all well and good, but the immediate problem remains that for at least the next five to 10 years, we will likely face a shortage of workers for harvest and fieldwork.

Horticulture needs to invest in technology, robotics, and AI development, but we cannot focus on the future so much that we don't address our current and pressing labour shortages. Until we have these robotic systems, we need to develop the programmes and support to enable all available New Zealanders to get into work and to progressively upskill for when robots are more common than today.