With the introduction of its 2026 berry harvesters, Oxbo is celebrating 40 years of designing and manufacturing berry harvesters in Lynden, Washington, USA. This achievement builds on the design and success of a berry harvester, introduced in 1985 by Korvan. This company was acquired by Oxbo in 2004.
From the beginning, Korvan set out to meet the needs of local raspberry farmers. In the early 1990s, the company developed both the Dynarotor and Orbirotor shaking systems that have become synonymous for selective and effective raspberry and blueberry harvesting.
Designed to create consistently deliver more marketable fruit, Oxbo has continued to develop new technology like EvenFill, EcoMode, SoftSurface, and FleetCommand for the berry industry. In 2025, Oxbo released its newest advancement AutoFill, which reduces labor by up to 75% and recently won a Top 10 New Product Award at the World Ag Expo in February 2025.
“We are proud of our legacy in the berry industry and strive to continue to develop equipment and technology that drives customer value,” commented Kathryn VanWeerdhuizen, Oxbo’s Director of Sales & Marketing for Fruit products. “The Oxbo team continues to work on developments designed to help berry growers reduce labor and increase marketable fruit. We are proud to design and manufacture our equipment in Lynden, Washington.”
40 Years of product development
In 1985, Korvan developed its first berry harvester, the 8500, to give local raspberry growers better harvesting technology. It was closely followed by production model 8600 in 1986. In 1990, the Korvan launch the popular model 9000, which served the raspberry industry for over a decade. In 1994, Oxbo introduced the Orbirotor shaking technology, the orbital rod action paired with the acetyl rod for selective harvesting in raspberries.
While the model 9000 was capable of harvesting blueberries, it wasn’t specifically designed around the needs of blueberry growers. So, in 1995, Korvan launched model 8000, a single drop blueberry harvester available with either a Dynarotor or Orbirotor, both systems proven effective in different climates and conditions. In 1998, Korvan introduced the 9800, its first top-load berry harvester with a moveable rear deck, designed for higher tonnage blueberry crops. The Lynden-based manufactured expanded into other crops in the late 1990s and early 2000s, including grapes, raisins, olives, and citrus.
Oxbo acquired Korvan in 2004 and began producing berry harvesters under the Oxbo brand in 2008. In 2007, Oxbo launched the next generation load berry harvester, the 7420. In 2011, Oxbo introduced the 9120 a lower-cost side-drive berry harvester geared specifically to harvesting IQF raspberries. Driven by the global growth in the blueberry industry, next generation harvesters, delivering higher productivity, fruit quality and new levels of integrated control technology, were brought to the market. Oxbo released the 7440 in 2016, the 8040 in 2017, the 8140 wider four-wheel single drop blueberry harvester in 2018, and the 9140 in 2021. The newest berry harvester, the 7450, was also launched in 2021 designed to better meet evolving cultural practices and growers’ needs.
Value added technology development
In addition to model development and patented shaking technology, Oxbo has invested heavily in integrated technology aimed at delivering more marketable berries, including:
SoftSurface: a patented system to reduce fruit bruising and improve the shelf life of machine-harvested blueberries for the fresh market.
EvenFill: an integrated flat weighing system to deliver consistent flat weights reducing downstream processing costs
FleetCommand: a telematics system including location data, a link to EvenFill, and all harvester settings, plus the ability to set field and job data and manage maintenance schedules.
AutoFill: built on the EvenFill technology, AutoFill automatically de-stack lugs, fills them to a preset weight and indexes full lugs to reduce on-harvester labor.
