On the 3rd of March, our SoftGrip team had the opportunity to come in contact with the Italian Mushroom Growers Association or L’Associazione Italiana Fungicoltori (AIF) in Italian. The non-profit organisation supports mushroom growers and strengthens mushroom cultivation while financially and legally backing sector-related activities. At the same time, the association aims to enrich the existing available agritech and scientific innovations to modernise mushroom harvesting and improve working conditions for its members.

Speaking of agritech innovations, AIF reached out to the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna (SSSA) to discuss the SoftGrip project. During the meet-up, Martina Maselli from SSSA presented the SoftGrip mission, technologies and prospective contributions to the association's board.

The president of the association, Mr Andrea Prando and the board members were very interested in the SoftGrip agritech approach and impressed by its smart benefits to mushroom farming. They also proposed a visit to Italian farms to learn the harvesting method they are using, which is different to the standard Irish method.

Last but not least, the primary outcome of the fruitful discussion and positive impressions was to explore how the Italian mushroom growers could be involved in the project, perhaps by integrating the soft grippers into their farming practices in the future. Therefore, we hope to meet AIF again when our project moves to the testing phase and is closer to optimising mushroom harvesting.