Impact of self-propelled and towed fruit harvester performance on apple harvest Summary The paper compares the performance data of Pluk-O-Trak self-propelled fruit harvesting machine and towed harvesting platform in apple harvest. Field studies and experiments on Cripps Pink, Fuji Kiku 8 and Granny Smith apple cultivars were carried out in Komin (Neretva Valley) orchards, totalling 7.3 ha. The tree density in orchards was 2.7 m x 0.6 m, i.e. 6,170 seedlings per hectare. In terms of measured performance and the quality of harvested apple fruit, the results of our research were impressive. Despite current apple growing technology being well known, the profit lies in reducing costs by using a towed fruit harvesting platforms. The purchase price of a fairly simple towed platform is significantly lower than self-propelled harvesting machine, without significant difference in their performance and the quality of harvested apples. The cost of harvest using a self propelled harvesting machine thus amounted to 0.80 0.90 EUR/ kg, while the cost of harvest using a towed harvesting platform amounted to only 0.10 0.14 EUR/kg of harvested apples. In addition to labour costs (pickers), the calculation of harvesting costs also included the depreciation of self propelled harvesting machine and towed harvesting platform.