Reservoir at present introduced Reservoir Farms – Washington, a brand new on-farm technical neighborhood for rugged bodily AI, anticipated to open in spring 2027 in Washington’s Yakima Valley, residence to over $3B in high-value crop agriculture.
Introduced at FIRA USA, the corporate’s first Pacific Northwest neighborhood is being developed alongside the Washington Tree Fruit Analysis Fee (WTFRC) and the Tri-Metropolis Improvement Council (TRIDEC), in addition to the North American Blueberry Council and different nationwide and native organizations. Reservoir can also be exploring partnership with Washington State College’s Prosser Irrigated Agriculture Analysis and Extension Heart (IAREC). It’s Reservoir’s second growth exterior California, following Yuma, Arizona, a pilot collaboration with College of Arizona.
“Know-how is strategic to the way forward for Washington agriculture,” stated Danny Bernstein, founder and CEO of Reservoir. “Tree fruit, blueberries, wine grapes and hops are a few of the hardest crops on the planet to automate, and labor is now the largest value Washington growers face. Increasing into the Pacific Northwest exhibits the Reservoir mannequin is working. Whenever you put builders on actual farms with growers who will inform them the reality, rugged bodily AI goes from prototype to manufacturing a lot sooner.”
How Reservoir Farms – Washington Helps Rugged Bodily AI Startups
Reservoir Farms – Washington follows the identical partnership mannequin as Reservoir’s different areas, putting startups on working farms alongside researchers and growers to construct, take a look at and refine expertise underneath industrial circumstances. Preliminary work will give attention to tree fruit and blueberries, with further testing in wine grapes and hops, and plans to increase into row crop methods over time.
Reservoir, which already has greater than 30 startups enrolled throughout its areas, will provide startups with a number of factors of entry at Reservoir Farms – Washington. Resident startups may have entry to the usual advantages of Reservoir membership and Affiliate-tier startups will achieve free farm entry in Washington. Bonsai Robotics and Sky Sense, that are already creating expertise for tree fruit, and early-stage startups Cordon and Rootline will be a part of Reservoir Farms – Washington as members.
Collaboration with main analysis establishments continues to be strategic for Reservoir to make sure productiveness and workforce outcomes are thought of equally. To assist this, Washington State College and Reservoir are exploring alternatives to determine a collaborative partnership targeted on advancing agricultural innovation, analysis, and expertise improvement.
“Washington growers want progressive applied sciences examined underneath real-world farming circumstances,,” stated Dr. Naidu Rayapati, director of WSU Prosser IAREC. “Alternatives to convey ag-tech startups along with our college to judge rising applied sciences throughout various cropping methods, together with orchards and vineyards, may give growers priceless insights inside a single rising season and rigorous validation over a number of seasons, serving to them make knowledgeable selections, cut back dangers, and enhance productiveness and profitability.”
Why Washington Tree Fruit and Blueberry Growers Want AgTech
Washington is the nation’s main producer of apples, pears and candy cherries, in accordance with the U.S. Division of Agriculture’s Nationwide Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS). In 2025, the state grew about two-thirds of U.S. industrial apples, a crop valued at almost $1.9 billion, together with about 70% of the nation’s candy cherries and 44% of its pears. Washington additionally led the nation in cultivated blueberries, producing 192.4 million kilos, a couple of quarter of the U.S. crop. Blueberries mix almost each problem Reservoir startups work on: a labor-intensive harvest that’s exhausting to mechanize with out damaging fruit, and fixed illness and pest strain.
These crops share a standard constraint: labor. Labor represents 50% to 57% of orchard variable prices for Washington apples, in accordance with WSU. H-2A visitor employee positions licensed in Washington almost doubled between 2017 and 2025, to greater than 34,500, in accordance with the U.S. Division of Labor. Over an identical interval, the variety of Washington farms with orchards fell 12%, in accordance with the USDA Census of Agriculture.
“Our growers are spending extra on inputs each season, and they won’t undertake expertise that was not developed or examined regionally,” stated Ines Hanrahan, government director of the Washington Tree Fruit Analysis Fee. “A machine that hasn’t been by way of a Washington rising season isn’t prepared for one. Constructing right here, with growers concerned from day one, is how we ensure our business is robotic prepared, and the robots are prepared for our business.”
Like Reservoir’s websites in Salinas, California’s Wine Nation, and Arizona, Reservoir Farms – Washington is designed round a public-private partnership mannequin that seeks to pair native analysis establishments, grower organizations and financial improvement teams with nationwide business companions. TRIDEC is offering monetary assist tying the positioning to the Tri-Cities area’s long-term financial improvement technique. Reservoir’s multi-region mannequin can also be backed by John Deere, which dedicated $10 million over three years in August, and Western Growers, which introduced a $1.5 million, three-year partnership earlier this yr.
“Agriculture is the guts and soul of this area, and the following technology of ag jobs will likely be in designing, operating and servicing the expertise,” stated Karl Dye, president and CEO of TRIDEC. “Reservoir offers agricultural expertise firms a purpose to construct right here. That’s why TRIDEC is backing it with actual {dollars} with the total assist of our membership.”
