In this episode of our Spotlight series, you will hear from Marcos Legas, President of Pegasus Agrifood Coop and partner in the CrackSense project. Speaking from a producer’s perspective, Marcos shares what it takes to grow table grapes that meet today’s high consumer expectations for taste, flavour and safety. He discusses the challenge of fruit cracking, the impact it has on yield, and how CrackSense is helping growers address this issue through better monitoring and smarter decision-making.
Can you introduce yourself and your organisation?
My name is Marcos Legas. I am the President of Pegasus Agrifood Coop, a producer organisation located in Corinth, Greece. We mainly cultivate table grapes and export our fruit to supermarket chains across Europe.
What is the main mission of Pegasus Agrifood Coop?
We support our growers with the resources they need in order to produce fruit that meets the specifications and requirements of both supermarkets and consumers. This includes suitability in terms of taste and flavour, as well as compliance with safety standards.
How is the CrackSense project supporting your work?
At the moment, we are very focused on the CrackSense project. For us, it is extremely important. In recent years, we have repeatedly faced the risk of losing our grapes due to cracking, which often appears when the fruit is fully matured and ready for harvesting. It is therefore essential to understand the parameters that influence this phenomenon.
Through this project, we are investigating these parameters in depth, and we believe that, in the end, it will provide a useful outcome – whether an application, an algorithm, or another type of tool – that will offer growers guidance on how to avoid or minimise grape cracking.
Conclusion
Marcos Legas’ insights highlight the crucial role of innovation and collaboration in modern agriculture. Projects like CrackSense not only help growers better understand complex phenomena such as fruit cracking but also provide practical solutions to protect yields and ensure high-quality produce reaches consumers.
By combining local expertise with scientific research, initiatives like Pegasus Agrifood Coop and CrackSense are delivering valuable tools and guidance for growers. Follow us on LinkedIn and subscribe to our YouTube channel to watch more videos from the Spotlight series.