Image: Klaudia Plawska-Niksa
Rather than sending pickers to the mushrooms, Van Namen’s new farm in the Netherlands brings the mushrooms to them!
Opened in December 2025, the 65-tonne-per-week farm is the first of its kind for Van Namen. From an automated drawer system that shuttles shelves between pinning and harvesting rooms to an automated picking disc that trims stems, technology has been fully integrated into the farm’s design.
Applied Horticultural Research CEO, Dr Gordon Rogers, visited in early 2026 to see the system in action. Take a look inside with this article from MushroomLink Magazine Issue #18, and learn how the technology works and what early results suggest about picking rates.
