by Chiara Spagnoli Gabardi

Awareness is spreading in a world afflicted by the green house effect, acid rain and global warming. Conscious sustainability is now spreading in all fields, and in recent years also in foodservice.

The Hungarian company, QuantisLabs Ltd. represents SmartVineyard, which was voted the third best start up in Europe, and produces eco-wine. It is well known that pesticides can cause a wide range of social and environmental problems, such as decreased long term soil fertility and pollution. Thus, the goal of the grape protection technology company is to end the overuse of pesticides.

Results were more than promising since SmartVineyard finished as second runner up out of over 4000 applicants in Intel’s prestigious European start-up competition and is now set to compete in the Intel Global Challenge finals in the United States. The idea behind SmartVineyardTM was pitched at this year’s finals of the Intel Business Challenge in Vilnius, Lithuania. In this occasion 24 start-ups delivered detailed pitches on their projects, commenting both on their execution and results to a jury of investment professionals. The stakes were high: the best five projects automatically participate in Intel Global Challenge’s international finals in Silicon Valley. The third place that SmartVineyardTM was awarded could not have come at a better time for SmartVineyardTM as the start-up is currently looking for investors and the global finals will provide them with a prime opportunity to make the right business connections.

This is how their system works:

This technology has proven popular with Central European wine producers. “Experienced professionals have reported that this year’s grape protection was the most challenging in the past 20 years”- says Csaba Arendas, CEO of SmartVineyard. “We are proud to report that none of our clients suffered any substantial losses.”

The motto and mission of the company – “Making grapes healthier” – contributes to the amelioration of nature’s conditions and that of wine lovers by going to “roots” of the problem. Grape disease management has become a significant issue in viticulture worldwide. Under certain weather conditions susceptible grape species can suffer 50-100% crop damage from infection. Considering the high value of grapevines per acre these diseases cause enormous financial damages.Viticulturists, in most cases, base their decisions on intuitions which might contribute to over-spraying.

That is why reducing the need for chemical control is one of the most important goals in integrated pest management. SmartVineyard is the proof that crop protection can be optimised using decision supporting systems.

The innovative precision viticulture system provides its users with unique disease predictions for every parcel of their vineyards, through networked stations and intelligent data processing. If most agricultural producers are still using 19th century methods to find out when to use 21st century chemical agents, SmartVineyardTM’s unique technology allows for the precise measurement of the climate and microclimate parameters which play an important role in the development and spreading of grape diseases. Hence the wine that will come out of the harvested grapes will be a top-notch natural product for the taste buds of wine connoisseurs, a true toast to Mother Nature: Cheers!

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