Canadian vertical farming company Elevate Farms Inc. has its sights set firmly on cost-effectively growing leafy green vegetables at mass scale. This week the tech-patent owning business announced the commencement of operations at its first wholly-owned US-based farm, located in Orange, New Jersey. The entire Elevate New Jersey facility measures 14,000 square feet (1,300sqm) which includes 4,750 square feet (441sqm) of unmanned, fully autonomous, grow room space along with processing, packaging and administration. The farm has a capacity to produce up to 11,000,000 plants, or equal to 500,000 pounds (227,000 kilograms) of plants, annually. Located only 20-miles from…
Author: Matt Peskett
Matt Peskett
Matt has worked in digital publishing and media for over two decades across the science, technology, food and agricultural sectors. With a lifelong passion for growing his own food, Matt also produces 300kg giant pumpkins for exhibition and volunteers with the Royal Horticultural Society. He has a sizeable horticultural social media presence and has been a finalist in the Garden Media Guild's blog of the year and social media awards. Matt also dabbles in start-up investment with companies like Small Robot Company, Drone Ag and RootWave.
US indoor farming specialist BrightFarms operates six high-tech greenhouse farms in New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, Ohio and Illinois. Its fresh lettuce options, from classic greens to crunchy mixes and salad kits, are available in more than 3,700 retail stores across the East Coast and Midwest. Now the firm has announced further expansion with the construction of four new regional greenhouse hubs. The new locations will offer sustainably grown leafy greens to more people across the Eastern and Central U.S and begin shipping to retailers in 2024. Building has already begun at the first regional hub location in Yorkville,…
In September 2022, Plenty Unlimited Inc. announced it had secured up to 120 acres of land near Richmond, Virginia, USA, to build ‘the largest, most advanced indoor vertical farm campus in the world’. Now, to advance that objective, the firm has entered into a strategic real estate alliance with commercial real estate investment trust ‘Realty Income’. Under the terms of the agreement, Realty Income will acquire and provide development funding for properties that will house Plenty’s indoor farms. The properties will be leased back to Plenty under long-term net leases. The agreement provides for up to US$1 billion of development…
The Middle East is an area with unique challenges for agriculture, including limited arable land, water scarcity, and extreme temperatures, these make vertical farming an attractive solution to increase food production in the region. Several countries in the Middle East, such as the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, and Qatar, have already embraced vertical farming to some extent. Dubai is home to the world’s largest vertical farm In July 2022 the world’s largest vertical farm was established in Dubai. Bustanica’s indoor facility covers 330,000 square feet and the farm has the capacity to produce 1 million kgs of salad…
Finnish vertical farming start-up Tuoretarha Ltd. (‘Fresh Garden’), has begun commercial-scale herb production in Pirkkala, Western Finland. The company is utilising the Vera® family of proprietary vertical farming systems available from Finnish technology firm Netled. Tuoretarha’s fully automated vertical farm is producing high-quality herbs sold under a new Finnish retail brand ‘Vyrtti’. The herbs will be available for consumers in March 2023 with a predicted annual output of 1.3 million pieces. The farm will also supply local grocery and hospitality clients within a 50-mile vicinity. Seven specific herb variants are being grown including basil, dill, cilantro, parsley, chive, thyme, and…
Israeli-Dutch venture, Future Crops Ltd filed for bankruptcy in the Netherlands on Tuesday. This news comes less than a year after the vertical farming company completed a new investment round, having already raised over US$30 million in seed funding. Founded in 2016, Future Crops established a fully automated 8,000m² indoor vertical farm in Westland, Netherlands, to grow and supply herbs and leafy greens. It has supply contracts with a leading grocery retailer in the Netherlands and additional retailers in Europe. The crops are grown in a soil-based substrate, researchers from Israel’s Agricultural Research Organization (ARO) were an integral part of…
Operating some of the world’s largest high-tech indoor farms, US company AppHarvest has begun commercial shipments of ‘Tomatoes on the Vine’ from its newest indoor farm, a 60-acre high-tech operation based in Richmond, Kentucky, USA. This is much needed good news for a Certified B Corp that has seen its share price fall from the heady heights of US$35.70 in mid-February 2021 to as low as US$0.47 in December 2022. The AppHarvest share price has since bounced back to US$1.40 (as at 18 Jan 2023). The opening of AppHarvest Richmond last December delivered on the company’s commitment to quadruple the…
Vertical farming specialist 80 Acres Farms operates eight indoor farms utilising world-class technology and analytics supplied by the firm’s technology subsidiary, Infinite Acres. Now in collaboration with Siemens, 80 Acres Farms (& Infinite Acres) will work on the optimisation, automation and control of indoor farming facilities and processes. Siemens (Financial Services, Inc) participated in 80 Acres’ $160 Million Series B funding round in August 2021. The new partnership will see Siemens supporting the industrialisation and scaling of the 80 Acres’ proprietary ‘Loop platform’ – a comprehensive solution that encompasses crop management software and algorithms, environmental controls, robotics, and automation. “Infinite…
Canada’s indoor strawberry growing specialist Winter Farm has raised $46 million. The CEA company will use the funding to build a vertical farm dedicated to strawberry production – the Vaudreuil site will produce around one million kilograms of Fraise d’hiver strawberries each year. Founded in 2018, the company is aiming to replace 10% of Canada’s strawberry imports with vertically farmed domestic fruit. In order to realise this project in Vaudreuil, Winter Farm has also announced the acquisition of Les Serres Vaudreuil, formerly owned by the St-Denis family, who will now manage operations and production of Fraise d’hiver strawberries. In the coming…
London based Vertical Future has entered into a collaboration with newly founded Vertical Farm Systems (VFS), a new subsidiary company of HSL established to work on the Singapore Advanced Vertical Farming (SAVE) project. With more than 90% of its food currently imported, the initiative is a Singaporean government target to meet 30% of Singapore’s food needs through domestic channels. HSL is an experienced infrastructure construction company focusing on water, energy, food and environment infrastructure projects in Asia. With more than 1,000 staff and a 28-year history, HSL brings significant infrastructure and engineering experience, knowledge, and high level expertise into VFS…
