Lotte Mart & Supermarket "Delicious Fruits? AI Will Pick Them for You"

Freshness and Taste-Selected Watermelons and Chamoe Make Their Debut

Lotte Mart and Super announced on the 23rd that they will introduce AI-selected watermelons and chamoe melons. Starting from the 25th, Lotte Mart and Super will sell ‘AI-selected watermelons (over 4kg, domestic)’ for 24,990 KRW and ‘AI-selected chamoe melons (1.2kg per pack, domestic)’ for 14,590 KRW.

Lotte Mart and Super are currently conducting a fresh quality improvement project called ‘Freshness Renewed.’ Accordingly, they have completed improvement work on a total of 14 fruit items, including watermelons, chamoe melons, and oranges, which are representative fresh food product groups. The goal of fruit quality improvement is to provide delicious fruit even if they are not uniform in appearance. In particular, according to the 2022 Food Consumption Behavior Survey statistical report, consumers consider taste and quality as important criteria when purchasing fruit, and freshness is the most prioritized information to check.

Accordingly, following last year’s quality improvement work on watermelons and chamoe melons, Lotte Mart and Super introduced an ‘AI selection system’ this year for more advanced quality management. The AI selection system is a technology that has evolved one step further from the previously used ‘non-destructive sweetness selector.’ It enhances the objectivity and accuracy of selection by adding an advanced AI-based agricultural product quality judgment system using deep learning (a technology where computers independently combine, analyze, and learn from external data) to the non-destructive sweetness selector.

Using the AI selection system, watermelons can be accurately judged for internal conditions such as immaturity, overripeness, internal cracking, and flesh deterioration, which previously relied on human judgment. For chamoe melons, it is possible to detect all types of external defects, including size, weight, disease presence such as powdery mildew or viruses, deformities, and scratches.

In particular, Lotte Mart and Super expect that the introduction of this AI selection system will significantly improve customer dissatisfaction cases related to watermelons from last year. Most customer dissatisfaction cases last year were due to internal watermelon issues such as overripeness and immaturity. Since the only method to inspect the internal condition of watermelons was by tapping and judging by the selector, mistakes during the selection process led to customer dissatisfaction cases.

Jung Hye-yeon, Head of Fresh Division 1 at Lotte Mart and Super, said, “Lotte Mart and Super are making various efforts, from local MDs who work on the ground with a single-minded determination to provide delicious fruit regardless of uniformity, to the introduction of advanced facilities such as the AI selection system. As watermelons and chamoe melons enter their season, we have prepared products verified for quality through the ‘AI selection system,’ the first of its kind in the large retail industry, to ease concerns about taste and quality. We ask for your great interest.”