Eternal.ag and Rijk Zwaan partner to develop tomato varieties for automated greenhouse harvesting

German agritech startup Eternal.ag and Dutch vegetable breeder Rijk Zwaan have launched a collaboration to identify tomato plant traits better suited to robotic operations in fully automated greenhouses.

The companies will combine Rijk Zwaan’s expertise in fruit and vegetable breeding with Eternal.ag’s capabilities in robotics and artificial intelligence to study how crop traits influence the performance of autonomous greenhouse systems. The initiative will focus on tomato varieties that improve fruit accessibility and plant architecture, enabling robots to perform harvesting and other crop-management tasks more efficiently and consistently.

The partnership comes as greenhouse operators worldwide face ongoing labor shortages and increasing interest in automation technologies. By linking crop genetics with robotic system development, the companies aim to help create more scalable and predictable greenhouse production models. Michiel Zwaan, Crop Manager for Berries and Tomato at Rijk Zwaan, said robotics are expected to play a significant role in the future of automated greenhouses and that the collaboration provides an opportunity to test new concepts in real-world conditions.