An interview with Maximilian Weitz, Global Sales Lead, QualySense

APC first met Max at its last in-person Winter Conference when QualySense joined the association. QualySense pioneered its unique QSorter® Technology 10 years ago - a sophisticated high-speed single kernel robot, which measures the biochemical and physical quality of grain, seeds and peanuts and sorts accordingly.

APC: The pandemic has challenged companies and their employees around the world. Have you been able to keep up with the technology in the peanut industry?

MW: We know that the U.S. faces challenges associated with the EU’s increased import controls for mycotoxin contamination. We have been able to accelerate and simplify the quality inspection process, so that aflatoxin levels are where they should be, by increasing the sample size by 10 times. The sample size is critical in finding aflatoxin, as it can be very unevenly distributed in a load.

APC: What other concerns are taking priority?

MW: Another concern from the peanut industry is the purity levels of high-oleic peanut batches, which are recently trending more and more in the U.S. and South America. Contamination from conventional peanuts or immature high-oleic peanuts can take place during breeding, farming or seed production, transport and handling of peanuts. With the QSorter® Technology, you can sort your entire breeding line for impurity and increase your samples in the quality inspection by 10 times.

APC: We know you are based in Zurich, Switzerland. How are you getting face time with customers and demonstrating your equipment?

MW: Well, we have been restricted from traveling to the U.S. so far and, like other companies, we’ve had our share of video calls.

Because we have customers who want to see our equipment in use with their products, we had to become a little more creative. We are inviting customers from anywhere around the world to send us samples of their peanuts. We can then provide a live video demonstration – with their specific product and criteria. We’ve actually became quite experts in online demos and produced a YouTube video to show exactly how it works.

If customers don’t have the time to ship samples, that’s not a problem. We have many peanuts inhouse to use as samples.

APC: If you had a crystal ball, what does the future for QualySense look like?

MW: By fall, I hope to be able to meet in-person with clients in the U.S. This is an important market for QualySense, and we intend to increase our footprint in the peanut industry. Some of our colleagues are already in the U.S., as they are allowed to install new units and service our many existing installations that we have in North America.

I also expect to participate at APC’s Winter Conference in Washington, D.C. this coming December; it was a great introduction for us in 2019, and I am excited to see the same enthusiastic crowd again.

Max has a farming background and worked as Territory Manager for John Deere International before joining QualySense. He holds a master's degree in Agricultural Economics from Humboldt-University in Berlin. For a live video demonstration or for any questions, please contact Max at maximilian.weitz@qualysense.com