Hectre opens US$2.98M lab to scan inside apples before export
What's the deal? Auckland agritech company Hectre has opened a research lab to develop hyperspectral scanning that assesses fruit quality from the inside — without cutting the fruit open. Agriculture Minister Todd McClay opened the central Auckland facility on October 27, 2026.
The details: The three-year programme is worth US$2.98M. The government is investing US$1.19M through the Primary Sector Growth Fund, with Hectre covering the balance.
What led here? Hectre's Arc scanner already reads colour, size and external defects as fruit arrives at packhouses across 22 countries. The new lab extends that work inside the apple, using sensors that fire light beyond human perception and measure what bounces back to gauge internal defects, starch and firmness.
Why it matters? Internal quality checks today mean cutting into a small sample — a method the government calls slow, destructive and imprecise. Problems like internal browning or rot often surface only after a container lands offshore, leaving exporters to discount, repack or dump.
What's the endgame? Better data earlier would let packhouses decide what to store, pack or ship. "Understanding the internal structures of fruit being shipped allows packhouses to make smart decisions around how to store, pack and ship their product," chief executive and founder Mattie Blomfield said. New Zealand's apple and pear industry contributes more than $1 billion a year to the economy.
What could go wrong? This is research, not a shipping product. The programme targets a proof-of-concept algorithm with at least 80% detection accuracy by June 2027, and a packhouse prototype validated under commercial conditions by June 2028.
The signal: The project follows Hectre's US$7.76M round earlier this year and reflects a funding model that ties public money to measurable outputs. For a company carrying 60% of the cost, the bet is that scanning inside fruit at commercial speed turns destructive sampling into a solved data problem.
Read more: rnz.co.nz
Image credit: Generated with Gemini
