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Korvan

Korvan was a small manufacturing company that focused on the needs of farmers who had crops that grew in tall, thin rows like raspberries, blueberries, grapes and coffee.

The Korvan company was purchased by Oxbo International in 2004. Oxbo is headquartered in Byron, NY. Oxbo is the combination of two other manufacturers of specialty agricultural equipment: Byron Industries (Byron, NY) and Pixall Corporation (Clear Lake, WI)

In 2012, Oxbo was purchased by a Dutch consortium now called the Ploeger Oxbo Group (Roosendaal, Netherlands).

History

In 1985 Korvan® Manufacturing was founded in Lynden, WA. In 1987 the company reorganized under the new name Korvan Industries, Inc.

Locally, raspberries were a major crop. A new variety, Meeker, was introduced into the market. This plant was much larger than the traditional Willamette variety. The company designed and built a raspberry harvesting machine for this plant. 1988 was a banner year for the company as they produced 50 of their Model 8600.

In 1988 Korvan introduced rotary picking technology to the raspberry industry with the introduction of the patented Vertirotor® picking system. This system had rods radially protruding from a center shaft. These rods moved up and down 1 inch. This the rotation of the center shaft and vertical component was incorporated in the name Vertirotor. Additionally, that year, the first auto steer system was tested and proven effective.

A couple of good years caused the company to invest more in research and development. Opportunities presented themselves in blueberries and coffee. Extensive work was done in Hawaii to develop a coffee harvester and by 1992 this machine was being marketed and sold. This diversity probably saved the company as 1992 was a very bad year for berry harvester sales. Six coffee harvesters sold to Kauai Coffee kept the company going.

By 1996, Korvan was selling coffee harvesters in Brazil. This went well until 1999 when the Brazilian Real collapsed. This put a major financial strain on the company. By 2001, the company had pulled out of Brazil and sold coffee harvesters to growers in Hawaii and occasionally Australia.

The coffee harvester gave the company another picking system dubbed the Dynarotor. It used similar picking fingers as the first rotary head, but these fingers vibrated in the horizontal plane. Picking coffee required a more aggressive picking system; this new shaker provided the energy need to pick coffee cherries from the plant.

At the same time the company was moving into the blueberry industry with a modified raspberry harvester. Blueberries were slightly more difficult to pick, so the newly developed Dynarotor was used to pick blueberries.

In the later part of the 1990s, growers were looking for higher quality picked fruit. Using technology from an existing expired patent, Korvan introduced the Orbirotor picking system. Now we have the action of the Vertirotor and Dynarotor combined causing the tip of the picking finger to move in an oval or circle. This proved slightly more aggressive compared to a Vertirotor, but less aggressive than a Dynarotor. We were able to pick a slightly less ripe piece of fruit in both blueberries and raspberries. The quality proved beneficial to the growers and they were now able to pick fruit acceptable as individually quick frozen (IQF).

As California vineyards became more popular in the late 1990s, the company expanded into grape harvesting. By 1999 they were selling the Model 3000 to growers in California and Washington, but also in Chile where the company had previously established distribution for the berry products.

Technological advances were created and patented by Korvan. For berries, the Dynarotor® and Orbirotor® were created for gentle, effective picking. For grapes a cost effective 3-wheel design.

In 1999 Korvan applied for and received money from the Florida Department of Citrus to develop a canopy shaking orange tree harvester. At the same time, they applied for a grant and received it from the California Olive Commission. By 2001, large harvesters for these tree crops were being commercially sold. Unfortunately, sales were limited, and the products were dropped a few years later.

In 2004, Oxbo International acquired Korvan. Oxbo specializes in building harvesting equipment for seed corn, sweet corn, beans, peas and other niche markets.

Between 1985 and 2004, the company built and sold just over 1,000 harvesters; about 60% were berry machines, 30% were grape and 10% coffee. There were a few others built, but these make up the bulk of the product.

Now the Lynden facility builds harvesting equipment for raspberries, blueberries, grapes and olives; generally thing that grow in tall thin rows.

The coffee machine designed and built in Lynden is now being produced in a new Oxbo facility in Rio Grande de Sol, Brazil

Patents

During the short 19-year history of Korvan, 10 patents were issued to employees of the company. This work shows the high degree of innovative thinking going on in this small company. These patents include:

4,750,322: Apparatus for dislodging and collecting produce from upstanding crops. A new method for shaking berries off the plant.

4,972,662: Crop harvester aggregating apparatus. A method to narrow the plant near the ground to minimize ground loss of fruit.

4,974,404: Apparatus and method for adjusting a harvester to an oblique profile of cane type berry plants. All picking apparatus were perpendicular to the ground. This covered all other angles.

4,982,558: Counterweight method and system for a beater rod of a harvester. A weight system that balanced picking shakers and paved the way for rotary head picking of berries.

5,010,719: Method and system for automatically steering along row crops. A method for automatically steering a berry harvester down a berry row.

5,027,593: Crop beater method and apparatus. Up until now, all picking fingers were straight. The covered picking finders that were curves so the rod would have better coverage.

5,660,033: Raisin harvesting apparatus and method. The company patented a machine to mechanically harvest dried raisins.

5,666,796: Beater rod assembly and method for a mobile harvesting machine. Fiberglass rods delaminate when they hit each other. This put a protective covering over the fiberglass to keep it from fragmenting.

6,070,402: Harvesting systems and methods. A fruit harvester with three wheels and two frame elements.

6,484,487: Plant engaging systems and methods for harvesting machines. A rotary shaking system that imparts a substantially horizontal picking action into a plant to remove fruit. Designed to remove olives and oranges from a tree.

Ownership

Over the years the ownership of the company changed:

1985: Don Korthuis and Will Vander Hage started the company. Using the first three letters of their last names, they created the Korvan name.

1986: Ken Stremler, Lewis Stremler, Herbert Korthuis, Kevan (Butch) Kvamme, Dorothy Otter and Eldon Vander Ploeg, making 6 partners

1987: Don Korthuis joined the above group making 7 partners.

1989: Scott Korthuis joined the group making 8 partners

2001: Eldon Vander Ploeg left the group making 7 partners

2002: Jon Olson joined making 8 partners

2003: Don Korthuis left the group, now at 7 partners

2004: when the company sold to Oxbo there were 7 partners: Ken Stremler, Lewis Stremler, Herbert Korthuis, Scott Korthuis, Kevan (Butch) Kvamme, Jon Olson and Dorothy Otter