Dr. Maryna Kuzmenko.
Field Notes · Events

Fruit Attraction 2026: The Festival of Fresh Connections, Attractive Technologies and Fruitful Opportunities

Field notes from Fruit Attraction in Madrid: generative AI in the packhouse office, sensors everywhere, visual quality control, drones and robots for IPM, RFID traceability, and the human experience no AI can replace.

Fruit Attraction 2026 📍Madrid, Spain
A stand wall of living lettuces growing in rows of glass bowls on a vertical green panel, lit from above.
One of the stand designs: a living lettuce wall.

Do you know the real name of Fruit Attraction? 🍎🫐🍓

It's the Festival of Fresh Connections, Attractive Technologies, and Fruitful Opportunities :)

Plus DJ music, palms, old and new friends, and mind-blowing stand designs (I recorded some of them, I'll show you 😉)

A tall pillar built entirely of fresh fruit: pineapples, dragon fruit, melons, grapes and leaves, stacked from floor to ceiling.
A pillar of fresh fruit on a stand.
A cluster of brown mushrooms growing out of a white-coated log, displayed on a stand.
Mushrooms growing on a log, on a produce display.

And as a bonus, Fruit Attraction is also kind of a fashion show (especially female business style 😍). But since we are here for a different purpose, let's talk about technologies.

Dr. Maryna Kuzmenko and Juliana Bolanos Castro standing in front of the large IFEMA Madrid letters in the exhibition entrance hall.
Dr. Maryna Kuzmenko with Juliana Bolaños Castro at IFEMA Madrid.

1. AI in offices

The main point is AI in offices: processing warehouse documents, forms, reports, etc. It's built on Generative AI, the strongest AI capability right now. It's great to see service providers filling this niche for fresh produce 🚀

Dr. Maryna Kuzmenko and Kacper Dach standing beside a stand on a pink carpet, with a display screen behind them.
Dr. Maryna Kuzmenko with Kacper Dach from Agro Contracts.

2. Sensors are everywhere

Good news: more AI in fields, orchards and greenhouses.

  • Weather stations: I lost count, it's already kind of a commodity.
  • Irrigation & soil sensors: often together with weather stations.
  • Image sensors: a few industrial-level cameras (looked pretty like IP65). But most providers in yield forecasting, computer vision & quality control don't invent cameras. They use market hardware & optimise the software.

3. Visual AI for quality control

Since we're on quality control already: several companies offer the same product, visual AI for fresh produce. The scheme is the same; the difference is in price (VC-backed ones ask more), accuracy (hugely depends on how modern your line is), and trust.

So, as usual, please do due diligence before anything serious.

4. Biologicals get their own delivery tech

Biologicals as part of IPM are getting their own delivery tech. Releasing beneficial insects by drone seems to be 4–6 times more effective than manual release.

Additionally, and warmly welcomed for in-field application: robots on legs and on wheels for phytosanitary treatments and weeding. All of them are worth attention and looked ready for a real field trial :)

Dr. Maryna Kuzmenko and Marc Jones standing in front of an Antobot stand with yellow field robots and a wall of strawberry plants.
Dr. Maryna Kuzmenko with Marc Jones from Antobot.
A white humanoid robot on a wheeled base in an exhibition aisle, beside crates of produce.
A humanoid robot on the show floor.
A compact wheeled robot with a red frame carrying a blue produce crate, on a stand.
A wheeled robot built to carry produce crates.

5. RFID, if you're serious about traceability

RFID is an interesting direction if you're serious about traceability. Tracking produce from farm to supermarket shelf solves lots of compliance issues. One thing to remember: overlapping. I studied it for a Petiole Pro case study (it's a different story on another day 👍🏼).

Choosing an RFID provider is a responsible decision, like a marriage :) Why? Because once their RFID is in, they have kind of a monopoly for you, and everything next has to align with them.

So choose someone who doesn't just want your money but feels like a team member 🤝

There were also drones for spraying, software of all colours and sizes + lots of smaller physical AI projects for both in-field phenotyping and post harvest.

A white robot arm mounted over a blue tray, on a stand.
A robot arm on the show floor.

Back to the human experience

But to sum up, I want to go back to the human experience.

You definitely need fluent Spanish to get 100% out of the event. However, even with imperfect English you will be understood, welcomed, and sometimes even hugged 🤗

Dr. Maryna Kuzmenko in a selfie with Volodymyr Pechko in front of the Ukraine national stand at Fruit Attraction.
Dr. Maryna Kuzmenko with Volodymyr Pechko, Head of Ukrsadvinprom, at the Ukraine stand.

And please, don't be scared with AI

It cannot replace all of THAT feelings and belonging to this place.

However, currently AI is the topic everyone wanted to speak about at Fruit Attraction 💚

A life-size model donkey carrying baskets of produce, on green carpet in front of an avocado-themed stand.
Another of the stand designs.