Mushroom growers are struggling to maintain benefit margins due to the globalization of agricultural markets, the increasing cost of raw materials/utilities and often the use of outdated and inefficient cultivation methods; it is no surprise that fresh mushrooms are often delivered under cost price, as manifested by SME participants. The consortium understands that technological innovation is the best option to maintain competitiveness and to keep an acceptable benefit margins for the growers, in line with overall agro sector trends: pursuing the technology-driven consolidation of the mushroom sector is a must for the survival of this industry. The white button mushroom (Agaricus bisporus) is the leading mushroom crop worldwide; of the 965 mil tonnes of these mushrooms produced in Europe over 2007, the 60% is sold fresh and the remainder are canned. Whereas for the canned industry mushrooms can be harvested and handled by an automated system, such automation does not yet exist for picking and handling mushrooms for the fresh market, due to the high quality standards required by this product: all mushroom in a tray should be of similar size and, above all, with no damage or blemish on its snow-white skin. Therefore, hand picking is the unique alternative, burdening producers with a cost accounting for between 20 and 46% of their total production costs, depending on the country. The suggested Champi-ON project aims developing a fully automated system for picking and handling mushrooms for the fresh market, bringing them from the growing bed to the cooling storage piled in trays, without causing any damage or blemish in the white skin mushroom. The system will implement under the same framework computer vision techniques, mechatronics and automation. Champi-ON will reduce the required labour for harvesting and handling fresh mushrooms by 80%.