On farm robots go mainstream

National machinery importer and distributor OPICO, have recently added Danish autonomous robots from FarmDroid to their range of products. 

FarmDroid was developed by a pair of farmers (Jens and Kristian Warming) from central Denmark, to deal with the specific issue of manually hoeing sugar beet. This led to the autonomous seed and weed solar powered robot, which is now into its fourth season of commercial operation across Europe.

In 2019 the company sold 12 units, which scaled up to 6 countries and 6 distributors selling 60 units in 2020, with 16 distributors across 18 countries selling approx. 250 FarmDroids in 2021.

Established distribution and support

What is interesting about the arrangement with OPICO, is that they are an established and recognised machinery importer and distributor with credible dealers across the UK, who are well used to selling, supporting and standing by complex products.

“I didn’t think we would be getting into robots so quickly, but we were approached by FarmDroid.” James Woolway, MD of OPICO said, “but it’s the right product, with the right company with the right people.”