B-hive Innovations

B-Hive was founded in 2017 to tackle problems in the fresh-produce supply chain. It works to increase marketable yield, improve crop quality, reduce food and energy waste, and make supply chains more efficient. Its technology ranges from non-invasive crop sensing to AI yield estimation that links data to plant phenotype.

B-Hive’s research is designed to reach the market, and it has already launched two commercial spin-outs. HarvestEye gives growers real-time data on crop size and count during harvest. RootExtracts extracts hypoallergenic protein from potatoes that are too misshapen to sell, turning waste into value. The work started with potatoes and has since expanded to strawberries, apples and onions, with aquaculture next.

B-hive's R&D work aligns with Horizon Europe Cluster 6 (Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment) across:

• AI-driven precision agriculture and digital farming. We build computer vision and AI pipelines that turn geolocated imagery from UAVs and from cameras on tractors, sprayers and harvesters into automated, data-driven information on crops. This supports Cluster 6 goals on digitalisation, resource efficiency and data-driven decisions on the farm. We have also had great success training growers on how to use drones, supporting adoption of new technologies.

• Monitoring biodiversity and crop diversity. We produce georeferenced diversity maps by fusing imagery from several platforms with environmental and management data. These maps track species composition, variability across the field and change over time, supporting agroecology, biodiversity monitoring and reporting under the Green Deal and Farm to Fork.

• Higher marketable yield and less food waste. HarvestEye, our patented and commercially deployed system, measures the size and count of potatoes, onions and apples at harvest and maps their variability. Growers can forecast more accurately, meet market specifications and cut waste, which contributes to fair, healthy and sustainable food systems.

• Circular bioeconomy and alternative proteins. Our spin-out RootExtracts recovers value from potato waste by extracting a hypoallergenic protein from outgrade potatoes. This ties in with Cluster 6 priorities on reusing side streams, circular food systems and plant protein self-sufficiency in the EU.