TPFlabsHow much does a blueberry harvesting machine cost in 2026?
There are three prices for a blueberry harvesting machine, and farms usually look at the wrong one. The sticker price of an over-the-row harvester is a six-figure number. The operating cost of hand picking is about €2.4 per kilogram — paid every single season. The third number, the one that decides whether automation pays off, is cost per kilogram picked, including the machine's idle months, service and the fruit you lose in the pass.
This guide breaks down all three, with a worked example for a mid-size farm.
The three ways to pay for picking
| Model | What you pay | When you pay it | Typical fit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Manual picking | ≈€2.4/kg picked | Every season, per crew | All farm sizes |
| Buying a machine | Capital price up front + service | Once, then yearly upkeep | Large acreage, processing fruit |
| Robot-as-a-Service | Per season, service included | Per season, no capex | Farms that want to test before committing |
The models are not interchangeable, because they put the risk in different places. Buying puts the whole risk on the farm: if the season is short, the machine sits idle and still costs money. RaaS puts the risk on the service provider: if the robot does not perform, the farm does not renew. Manual picking puts the risk on the labour market, and that is the risk that has been growing every year.
What a machine costs, by category
Over-the-row harvesters. These are the machines most farms mean when they say "blueberry harvester". A new unit is a six-figure investment; used machines trade for much less but carry a history you cannot fully inspect. Running costs are fuel, maintenance and a tractor plus operator. The economics work on large acreage for processing fruit, where mixed ripeness and a few percent of bruising are acceptable.
Walk-behind and small-tractor shakers. Cheaper to buy than a full harvester, and cheaper to run. Same trade-off: the machine shakes the whole bush, so ripe and green berries come off together and the fruit goes to processing, not to a punnet.
Selective harvesting robots. The newest category, and the only one that keeps fresh-market grade, because it picks berry by berry. It is also the category with the least price history, which is exactly why the RaaS model exists: it lets a farm find out what the machine is worth on its own rows before writing a capital cheque.
Cost per kilogram: the number that matters
Price tags are easy to compare and rarely decide anything. Cost per kilogram picked is what a farm actually pays, and it has three parts: the machine, the crew and the losses.
The machine. For CALIBER+, Robot-as-a-Service is €26,000 per season — service, software and updates included. Against the ≈€2.4/kg of manual picking, that works out to about €1.9 per kilogram of picked berries.
The crew. Manual picking needs people, housing, transport and scheduling, and the cost of all of it rises with every season that passes. A machine shift needs an operator at the start of the row and someone to swap the battery — a job that takes under a minute with a hot-swap pack.
The losses. This is the part that never appears in a quote. An over-the-row harvester leaves about 5% of the crop in the field or in a lower grade; on a fresh-market programme that loss is priced at premium rates, not at processing rates. A selective machine is built to have zero crop loss on the pass, because it never touches a green berry.
Worked example: 100 tonnes of fresh-market berries
At a manual picking cost of €2.4/kg, 100 tonnes costs about €240,000 in labour. At the RaaS rate of ≈€1.9/kg, the same 100 tonnes costs about €190,000 — including service, software and support.
That is roughly €50,000 per 100 tonnes, before counting the fruit that processing-grade harvesting would have downgraded. For a farm picking several hundred tonnes a season, the difference is not a discount: it is the margin.
Purchase: what the numbers look like
Some farms prefer to own the machine, and for those there are two configurations of CALIBER+:
- Flagship — six arms — from €80,000
Both sit in the prototype and pilot-series timeline of 2027-2028, with CE certification planned under EU Machinery Regulation 2023/1230 and hybrid manufacturing: EU final assembly, optimised mechanics. A commercial proposal is available on request.
The honest caveat: buying makes sense when the machine works most of the season on your own acreage. If your harvest window is short and your hectare count is moderate, the arithmetic favours paying per season instead.
What a season price should include
When you compare offers, compare what is inside the price, not only the number:
- Data — ripeness distribution, yield per row, cost per kilogram: the reports that make next season cheaper.
If a quote does not answer these five, the cheap offer is usually the expensive one.
The pilot: paying to find out, not to guess
The lowest-risk way to price a machine is to measure it on your own field. The CALIBER+ pilot runs 30/60/90 days: a row survey and vision calibration for your varieties, autonomous harvest on one hectare with ripeness, calibre, loss and cost per kilogram measured, then a full report and an option to lock a tariff or buy for the next season. Payment is 50/40/10 by stage, and there is no financial obligation until a season contract.
Pilot slots for season 2027 are open. If you want the arithmetic done on your own hectares, write to drublev77@gmail.com with your acreage, varieties and harvest window.