Tagga: Orchard innovation brings precision to fruit thinning in Hawke’s Bay

Tagga, operated by Fruition precision horticulture technician Adam Fisher, on a kiwifruit orchard near Te Puke.

A new horticulture tool developed in Hawke’s Bay is helping orchard workers thin fruit more precisely – and early trials suggest it could save growers thousands of dollars in labour costs and reduce unnecessary fruit losses.

The innovation, called Tagga, was created by Fruition Hawke’s Bay in response to a common challenge: how to turn complex orchard scan data into clear instructions for less experienced workers.

“The feedback we were getting from orchardists was ‘your fruit density scans are great, but how do I make sure the 15 backpackers I’ve hired understand them and carry out my thinning instructions accurately?’”, said Alex Hoek, precision horticulture manager at Fruition Hawke’s Bay.

To improve fruit quality and yield, Tagga combines Green Atlas orchard scanning with a GPS-guided line-marking machine to map and precisely mark the sections of an orchard that need thinning.

This provides a way of taking a grower’s instructions and physically laying them out in the orchard to remove the risk of less experienced workers thinning fruit in the wrong areas.

“The process involves digitally mapping an orchard using the Green Atlas Cartographer and then downloading that data to our Tagga line marking unit,” Hoek said.

“The Tagga unit is then towed around the orchard by an ATV, automatically spraying the ground as it passes over it to clearly and precisely mark areas where scan data shows thinning is needed.”

In a trial on a kiwifruit orchard during the 2024/25 season, Tagga was used on a 1ha block while traditional thinning instructions were used on another comparable 1ha block.

The Tagga block results showed significant labour savings and much more targeted crop removal.

Labour time dropped by 35% – a saving of 44 hours – and around 60,000 fewer fruit were removed in areas that didn’t need thinning.

“When we consider the value of gold kiwifruit, saving just 1000 good pieces of fruit from being thinned pays for the Tagga application,” Hoek said.

“Add to this labour savings and potential fruit quality gains, and it’s clear this can be a powerful tool for growers.”

This season, Tagga will be available as an on-call service for apple and kiwifruit growers in Hawke’s Bay and Bay of Plenty.

Fruition Hawke’s Bay is also exploring future models that could allow orchardists to operate the units themselves.

“Precision horticulture is making waves internationally because of its potential to help orchardists tailor their approach to different parts of their orchard, whether for nutrient treatment or deciding which specific vines or trees need spraying,” Hoek said.

“The way we have used the technology for Tagga is the first time anywhere, to our knowledge, that precision horticulture technology has been used to physically spray the ground to guide horticulture workers.”

Hoek said Fruition Hawke’s Bay hoped to expand its suite of precision tools, building on the Green Atlas scanning service to help growers make even more targeted decisions.

“In the exact same way we are painting lines at the base of select trees, we could instead be spreading fertiliser, root pruning, or spraying plant growth regulators.

“As these technologies become more available to growers, the value that can be derived from Green Atlas scan data will only get greater.”