"It allows us to take the computer vision technology we've built for apple growers and adapt it to tackle some of the toughest challenges facing grape growers."
The Government of Canada is investing up to C$1,693,412 in Toronto-based Vivid Machines Inc. to adapt its Vivid XV artificial intelligence camera system from apple orchards to grape vineyards. Announced September 10, 2026 in Toronto by Karim Bardeesy, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Industry, on behalf of Agriculture and Agri-Food Minister Heath MacDonald, the funding flows through the AgriScience Program's Projects Component under the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership.
The three-year project tasks Vivid Machines with upgrading its XV camera technology and training new computer vision models to spot crop diseases early, track fruit quality and predict yields on a per-vine, row and block basis in vineyards. The stated goal: give growers real-time insights that protect crops, reduce chemical use and support the resilience of Canada's grape and wine sector.
What the money buys
The Vivid XV is not a robot but an AI spectral camera system that mounts onto farm equipment already moving through the rows, scanning plants in real time and analyzing their chemical and physical properties to flag plant health, fruit development and early disease risk. Each reading is tied to a precise field location, giving growers plant-level and block-level intelligence for spraying and harvest decisions.
"This $1.69M investment from the Government of Canada through the AgriScience Program is a vote of confidence in Canadian-made innovation," said Jenny Lemieux, co-founder and CEO of Vivid Machines. "It allows us to take the computer vision technology we've built for apple growers and adapt it to tackle some of the toughest challenges facing grape growers such as crop load estimation, and early disease detection."
"Our grape growers work incredibly hard. By supporting the right technology, we help safeguard the crops that support our communities and local economies," said Minister Heath MacDonald. "Investing in Vivid Machine Inc.'s smart imaging tools will help producers be more resilient so they can continue growing the top-quality grapes that Canadians, and the world, love."
Why grapes are harder than apples
Adapting the system is not a relabeling exercise. Grapevines grow on trellises in flatter, denser canopies than free-standing apple trees, and early symptoms of diseases like downy mildew or botrytis bunch rot often hide on leaf undersides or inside dense fruit clusters, harder for a moving camera to see.
Two caveats for buyers and investors. Vendor-stated accuracy figures should be treated as provisional until independently validated in real vineyards, and the funding supports development and validation work, not a finished product. Both are standard, and both mean the field results, not the announcement, are the thing to watch. If the XV proves itself in vineyards the way it has in orchards, per-vine disease and yield intelligence becomes a realistic input to spraying and harvest decisions across the Canadian wine sector.