Compagnie Fruitière, the Marseille based world-leading producer of Fairtrade certified bananas, recently announced that it is to make its innovative in-house banana production software, FARMS, available to the wider banana industry.
The software is already deployed by the company on more than 14,000 hectares across Africa and Latin America, helping producers optimise yields, cut costs, and reduce disease pressure with 1-metre geo-located data and real-time decision-making.
According to the company, the power of the solution resides in its unique capacity to geo-localise every piece of data with precision. It can identify each bunch of bananas, from flower to the pallet, and allow each plant diagnosed with weakness or disease to be marked, mapped and treated. It also enables companies to document the performance and working hours of its workers.
What makes FARMS different?
Compagnie Fruitière explained to Banana Link that what differentiates FARMS from other digital farm management systems is that it is designed by growers, for growers, not by chemical companies, tech consultants or agribusiness vendors with secondary interests.
Born from the company’s expertise as one of the world’s leading banana producers, FARMS is deeply rooted in the operational reality of banana and plantain farms. Unlike generalist platforms, the system is tailored to the very specific agronomic, logistical and environmental challenges of tropical fruit production, including:
- From bunch to box: FARMS tracks the entire production cycle, from geolocated bunches in the field to their final destination.
- Plug & play integration: It connects easily with weather stations, irrigation systems, traceability tools or any ERP, making it a seamless part of the farm
- Real-time, reliable data: Collected directly by field workers using intuitive mobile devices.
- Banana-specific intelligence: From disease tracking to packing decisions, every module has been shaped by real-world needs.
The company added that FARMS “is not just a tool”, it is a platform built on shared grower values, collective improvement, and long-term impact.
FARMS is also intended to contribute to sustainable production by empowering growers to produce better, using less, a core principle of both agroecology and sustainability, including:
- Precision agriculture reduces waste: tasks and treatments are more targeted, saving water, fertilisers and effort.
- Better disease control and yield optimization thanks to timely, geo-referenced data.
- Team empowerment: FARMS helps redistribute responsibilities more fairly across teams, with full visibility on contributions.
- Fair Trade alignment: It makes work traceable and measurable, supporting fair compensation systems.
- Lower environmental footprint: More efficient inputs, fewer losses, and data that enables long-term regenerative planning.
The company also explained to Banana Link that they believe that technology should empower people, not replace them, and that that FARMS changes the way people work but in the best way possible:
- It removes repetitive, low-value tasks like handwriting forms or transcribing data into Excel.
- Workers scan, record, and move on in seconds.
- Even non-literate workers can use it confidently, thanks to intuitive mobile interfaces.
- Field teams feel more recognised and more trusted in Africa, adoption has often been met with enthusiasm, not fear.
And that rather than cut jobs, FARMS helps make existing jobs more meaningful:
- Operators do less paperwork and more productive work.
- Managers have better tools for decisions, not more admin.
- No more manual weighing, weighing operators can have value added tasks.
- Office staff can focus on quality rather than data entry.
The wider context
According to Forbes Business Insights, the global agriculture technology software market is currently experiencing substantial growth, with the farm management software segment alone valued at USD 2.77 billion in 2024 and projected to reach USD 10.27 billion by 2032.
Alongside this, there is an increasing emphasis on sustainability and environmental management in agriculture due to the enormous nature of the industry and its resulting impacts. For instance, according to WWF, agriculture employs more than a billion individuals and produces more than USD 1.3 trillion worth of food each year, covering about 50% of the Earth’s livable land and providing habitat and food for many different species.
This has led to the growing demand for agriculture management solutions that support regenerative agriculture practices, carbon sequestration initiatives, and soil health management. Farmers are seeking software tools that help them monitor and minimize their environmental impact while improving long-term profitability and productivity. Additionally, concerns about climate change and the environment will increase the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices supported by advanced software solutions.
We reproduce below an interview with Peter Bentata, Vice President – Production at Compagnie Fruitière on his aspirations for FARMS and the challenges the company has faced in developing it.
Photo: Farms Digital
