Valtech, the experience innovation company, today announced it has been awarded second place at the PostNL Innovation & AI Award, part of the Shopping Awards, for its work with The Greenery. The recognition highlights Valtech’s role in designing and delivering YieldWizard — an AI-powered solution that shifts fresh produce quality management from reactive inspection to proactive, data-driven decision-making.
Developed in just six weeks through Valtech’s Innovation Marathon, YieldWizard predicts the likelihood of product rejection before harvest. By combining grower and cultivation data, weather insights, historical quality data and product characteristics, Valtech built a prediction model with high accuracy. The solution also introduces “intelligent matching,” aligning predicted batch quality with B2B customer profiles to improve allocation, reduce waste and increase margin.
“What makes the Innovation Marathon so powerful is how quickly you move from a clear idea to something that actually works. Together with The Greenery, we started with a concrete business challenge and, in just a few weeks, built an AI solution that predicts strawberry quality and delivers a huge impact in their daily operations. It’s making a real difference by helping the business move from reactive decisions to much more proactive steering,” says Mark Passtoors, AI Client Strategy at Valtech.
From AI concept to operational impact in weeks
The solution is delivering measurable results, including:
- Improved product accuracy and more precise batch allocation
- Reduced dock inspections with more targeted quality control
- Lower waste and fewer customer claims
- Greater predictability across the supply chain
This impact — and the speed at which it was achieved — was key to the recognition from the jury, as highlighted by Pablo van Vierzen, Business Digital Transformation Lead at The Greenery:
“What I really appreciated was the focused, fast-paced approach of the Valtech Innovation Marathon. We started with a clear idea addressing a real business challenge, and within 42 days developed an AI solution with strong potential to scale. Beyond the efficiency gains, it’s especially rewarding to receive recognition from an institution like the Shopping Awards. We’re very proud to have achieved second place alongside leading B2C brands.”
A scalable foundation for future innovation
While initially developed for strawberries, YieldWizard is designed as a scalable model that can be extended to additional product categories and enhanced with new data sources. The award jury noted strong potential for further development, recognizing the solution as both innovative and highly practical for real-world application.
Valtech’s recognition at the PostNL Innovation & AI Awards underscores its ability to rapidly translate advanced technologies into solutions that drive meaningful business outcomes for clients.
