About 75% of the world’s crops rely on insect pollination. Edete’s technology can replace nature’s pollinators like honeybees in order to help produce more food and meet the needs of the world’s growing population The Israeli startup, established in 2016, has successfully completed a series of field trials for pollen harvest and pollination in almond orchards in Israel using its unique pollen harvesting and mechanical pollination system Larger commercial scale testing of Edete’s new system will continue in Israel and Australia. The company plans to begin a pilot program using the technology in 2022 in California, the world’s largest almond growing region.

The global almond market is estimated at over $7 billion annually, while 80% of it is in the U.S., most of which is in California. Costs are rising, as growers spend on beehive pollination services over $400 million per season.

Edete’s system is based on the mechanical collection of flowers and extracting pure pollen out of them. The company’s proprietary method enables the maintaining of good germinability rates of pollen stored for over one year. The pollen is applied on the trees using the company’s unique robotic pollination system which utilizes a combination of technologies to disperse an optimal dosage of pollen on the target flowers to achieve effective pollination. The application units can work during day or night and independent of ambient temperature.

Edete’s business model is based on supplying pollination services, like current contracting of beehives, the price of which continues to rise. The service is expected to be competitive with current pollination alternatives but is expected to result in an estimated increase of 10%-20% in yields and with much less volatility from one growing season to the next.