Local employment has been one of our top priorities at the Harlow strawberry smart farm facility in the United Kingdom. Providing consistent, full-time jobs in a typical seasonal field is what truly sets SMARTKAS apart from competitors in the UK's soft-fruit industry.
The operations in Harlow have been set up by a small key team of people. In conjunction with office employees, precisely 16 Smart Farm Operatives have been responsible for picking and packing the produce. To put this into perspective, in a traditional strawberry growing field, at least triple the number of people would be needed for harvesting the berries, transporting them to a packhouse, and packaging them to be sent to retailers. Growing, picking, packing, and shipping in the same building makes it possible to involve significantly fewer people, but still produce the same, if not more, quantity of strawberries.
Hiring locally is also a valuable opportunity for us as a business to invest in the people we choose to hire. Being a rapidly growing company, we want to see our employees progress as we do. We are always looking for the right training and collaboration opportunities with local entities, this sets us apart from competitors.
At Harlow our impact is not only at the Innovation park, but it is actually within Harlow city itself. We are actively attracting and seeking local talents to have access to SMARTKAS.
By doing so everyone understands what we do and how we are changing the agricultural sector. Being able to see and show their own SMARTKAS grown strawberries on the shelves of their local supermarket creates a sense of pride and commitment to their work.
We invest in our team early in the process to make sure they have the right skillset to operate. For instance, during the onboarding process new hires learn all about food safety regulations, how to take care of the farm and ultimately how to best harvest strawberries.
Besides providing training opportunities we also encourage our team to grow and follow their interests within our company, this way we build trust and cooperation. At SMARTKAS we invest in people and we treat them like family.
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