Designing The Future of Urban Farming

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Helping a Berlin startup strengthen its offer of vertical farming products and services

INFARM

THE CHALLENGE

Help INFARM develop the vision, products, and services for their B2B vertical farming offer.

THE OUTCOME

Concepts for the industrial design of B2B vertical farm units, the interaction design of the app to control and monitor the units, and a business model for sustainability.

The challenge of how we’ll feed the exploding world population in the future—in a sustainable, cost-effective, and environmentally friendly way—is seeding an agricultural revolution in Europe.

In 2012, INFARM founders Erez, Guy Galonska, and Osnat Michaeli found that vertical farms could be a solution to urban self-sufficiency. These farms could allow people to grow vegetables and herbs in small spaces, with no soil and far less water.

If every city on earth were to grow 10 percent of its produce indoors, it would allow us to take 340,000 square miles of farmland back to the forest.

DICKSON DESPOMMIER, EMERITUS PROFESSOR OF PUBLIC HEALTH AND MICROBIOLOGY AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, AND FATHER OF VERTICAL FARMING

An approach that’s captured the imagination of futurists for decades, vertical farming involves growing vegetables and herbs in stacked units or inclined surfaces, within which moisture, light, temperature, and nutrients are monitored, and controlled.

After creating their first vertical farming experiment in their apartment in Berlin, the founders brought together plant scientists and industrial designers to explore and develop vertical farming’s potential.

Since then, the startup has created custom growing systems for clients including Airbnb, Mercedes-Benz, and Weber. Most recently, INFARM installed a vertical farm growing herbs and vegetables at the Berlin branch of German supermarket chain Metro, the fourth-largest retail chain in the world, to sell to the public. It’s been profiled in Wired Germany, Süddeutsche Zeitung, The Guardian, and Zeit.

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The vertical farm is designed to be modular, allowing consumers to purchase according to their needs.

INFARM collaborated with IDEO to further explore their B2B offer, including concepts for the industrial design of the stackable, modular, climate-controlled units; the interaction design of an accompanying app to monitor and control the units, and its business model.

Urban farmers will sign up for “farming as a service,” comprising the units themselves, as well as a monthly subscription for seeds, cartridges filled with nutrients, and a pH regulator. Because they’re stackable, the modules can be scaled to suit anyone from a home grower to a restaurant chef or supermarket owner. And Erez claims a 1 square meter growing tray can yield four to six mature plants every day, 365 days a year, doubling that of state-of-the-art hydroponic greenhouses.

The consumer app allows farmers to choose a set of herbs designed around specific recipes.

As well as remotely regulating each unit’s climate, the app will educate growers about new vegetables and herbs, selling packs of complementary seeds, with suggested recipes for them, and cooking instructions. Aiming to promote biodiversity, the firm will sell rare-breed and heirloom seeds too.

The startup has funding from the EU’s European Pioneers fund and is now looking to secure investment to accelerate software development and ramp up their hardware production capabilities. Quite literally, it's growing its business.

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Majid Al Futtaim Launches Dubai’s ‘First’ In-Store Hydroponic Farm

The farm spans 24 square metres and can accommodate up to 16 varieties of leafy greens and herbs

Malls operator Majid Al Futtaim has opened what it claims is Dubai’s “first” in-store hydroponic farm at its Carrefour market Al Wasl store.

The farm spans 24 square metres and can accommodate up to 16 varieties of leafy greens, including lettuce, arugula, and kale, and herbs such as basil, dill, and sorrel.

The new opening marks the company’s third in-store hydroponics farm, following two others in Carrefour locations at Yas Mall and My City Centre Masdar.

The farms are part of an agreement signed by Majid Al Futtaim with the UAE’s Ministry of Climate Change and Environment to promote sustainable locally-grown produce, a statement said.

Hydroponics enables fresh produce to grow in a controlled environment, providing a steady supply of food throughout the year.

The farm also uses 90 percent less water and less space than traditional farms to deliver approximately 10kg of fresh herbs and microgreens per day, equivalent to the yield of about 1 acre of farmland.

Alain Bejjani, CEO at Majid Al Futtaim Holding, said: “The increased supply of locally-grown produce is key to ensuring long-term food security in the UAE. With the introduction of our latest in-store hydroponics farm, we are expanding our own sustainable farming capabilities. At the same time, we are working closely with local farmers to stock their produce in our stores.”

Also read: Carrefour launches mobile grocery bus in Dubai

The farm also contributes to Majid Al Futtaim’s commitment to offset the company’s water and carbon footprint by 2040.The conglomerate has been stepping up its sustainability agenda, and late last year announced that it will eliminate single-use plastic from its operations by 2025.As part of the decision, Carrefour stores will remove 800 million plastic grocery bags from circulation annually, it stated.

Read: UAE Carrefour stores to soon remove plastic bags as part of Majid Al Futtaim eco-plan

Unfazed By Covid-19, Infarm Arrives In Japan And In Canada

March 26, 2020

Richard Martyn-Hemphill

Photo credit: Infarm

Strictly speaking, vertical farming has been with us since the dawn of agriculture; it would be interesting to see wheat growing any way other than vertically. But the term, despite its ambiguity, is now recognized shorthand for vertically stacked farming, where layers of crops are grown on top of each other, and where conditions like light, temperature, water or nutrients are artificially controlled indoors to allow for year-round growing.

There are two predominant visions of vertical farming: centralized and distributed. Proponents of centralized systems argue that large-scale production—and financial viability—depends on ever-bigger and higher farms. These farms, or plant factories as they are sometimes called, are proliferating, aided by huge sums of capital. Plenty scooped up a whopping $200 million in Series B funding back in 2017. US-based AeroFarms raised $100 million in late-stage funding in 2019, for example, while Fifth Season secured $50 million last year.

While centralized facilities have generally dominated the vertical farming venture capital domain, distributed and decentralized business models are gaining pace, according to AgFunder’s 2019 industry report. One in particular—Germany’s Infarm—nabbed $100 million last year to deploy its connected growing cabinets in supermarkets.

AFN has been keeping tabs on Infarm as a high-profile case study of the distributed vertical farming model. The company’s footprint already includes more than 600 cabinets in many European and US cities. During the first quarter of 2020, Infarm has been busy making progress on its global expansion strategy as well. In February, for instance, East Japan Railway Company (JR East) partnered with Infarm to deliver fresh produce grown and harvested in retail stores starting in summer 2020 (pending circumstances around the Covid-19 pandemic, of course). The partnership is Infarm’s first in Asia.

Infarm has also inked an agreement with national food distributor Muroo, which will support a phased roll-out of the Berlin-based company’s farms across Japan in 2021. Infarm has launched a new affiliate, Infarm Japan, to support its expansion in the country.

Similar plans are also afoot in Canada, where Infarm will soon launch its first fresh produce harvests at Safeway stores in Vancouver, with eventual expansion to Calgary, Edmonton, Halifax, Toronto, Victoria, and Winnipeg.

Roll-out timelines in both countries could yet be disrupted, as both Canada and Japan grapple with the Covid-19 outbreak. City lockdowns, movement restriction, and global logistics disruption may bolster the case for distributed urban growing models like Infarm’s, however.

“Urban farming by Infarm has the potential to drastically change the common practice of logistics,” Shunichiro Yamashita, the CEO of Muroo, wrote to AFN. “For produce to be consumed in large cities, such as Tokyo, we must rely on supplies from the suburbs and distant locations. By eliminating the distance between the customer and the place of origin, customers will be able to acquire fresher produce with peace of mind and safety.”

AFN caught up with Emmanuel Evita, global communications director at Infarm, (virtually, of course) to learn more about the company’s expansion strategy and the impact from Covid-19.

AFN: So how is Infarm progressing in light of the Covid-19 outbreak? How has that affected expansion, sales, and day to day operations?

Emmanuel Evita: We’re finding that the demand from many of our partners and consumers for fresh produce is increasing. In the past few weeks, for example, we were able to increase deliveries to stores with higher demand across our markets. With our hubs located in cities, as close as possible to many of the supermarkets and restaurants we serve, we’re able to keep growing and stay responsive to the needs of our partners throughout this period, whether we are growing fresh in-store or from our hub.

What did you have to adjust in your expansion strategy when thinking about Japan?

Overall, we are showing our capacity to build an operation quite quickly—from a single farming unit to hundreds of farms in supermarkets and distribution centers in cities around the world.

Japan is a nation of advanced robotics. Which synergies have you identified here with your own vertical farming offering?

There are a lot of synergies. IoT technology and Machine Learning are core to our farms, and it’s exciting to strengthen the relationship between technology and sustainable food in Japan.

In the popular imagination, Canada is a land of sweeping prairies, a place of vast outdoor agricultural production. Where would vertical farming be needed in this context?

We believe vertical farming is needed in diverse countries and cities all around the world. Modern agricultural production places an incredible burden on our environment. Not only are these processes responsible for 17% of total global CO2 emissions, but they sap plants of 45% of vital nutrients by the time they arrive in the supermarket. As climate change, soil degradation and the loss of natural ecosystems threaten to worsen these effects, we want to find another way.

Our mission is to help cities become self-sufficient in their food production while significantly improving the safety, quality, and environmental footprint of our food. We want to practice a form of agriculture that is resilient, sustainable and beneficial to our planet. And, we want to make fresh, pure, tasty and nutritious produce available to everyone.

By choosing Canada and Japan, you’re expanding simultaneously into two very different time zones, let alone cultures. How do you plan to handle and react to your growing data in real-time?

Japan and Canada mark our eighth and ninth countries, respectively, and we have more than 600 farms in stores and distribution centers around the world. Our machine learning and IoT technologies make it possible to collect huge amounts of data from our farms around the world in real-time.

With a decentralized strategy, keeping up unified growing conditions becomes difficult. How do you prevent infections at your vertical farms?

Infarm controls the farms remotely using sensors and a centralized, cloud-based platform that adjusts and improves itself continuously, so each plant grows better than the one before – providing plant seedlings with an ideal combination of light spectrums, temperature, pH, and nutrients for optimal growth. From the cloud at our Berlin headquarters, we’re able to gather up-to-the-minute information about how our plants are growing and how they respond to different growth environments on a minute scale. We can make many of the needed adjustments remotely. Our growers also offer support for the farms on-site as needed.

Infarm is the first hydroponic farming company to receive the Global G.A.P certification for the standard of quality and agricultural best practices and follow these best practices to maintain healthy plants for sale and consumption.

Is 2020 the year of hydroponics or aeroponics?

We specialize in hydroponic farms and that’s what we’re passionate about. But the Infarm approach is only one way to tackle the urgent agricultural and ecological challenges of our time.

What has been the biggest hurdle to driving down the price of indoor-grown fresh produce

Retailers set the price for the produce we provide in-store. The price does not tend to be significantly higher than their other produce offerings.

What is the ideal size of a vertical farm?

It depends on the environment. Our modular farms are easily scalable and rapidly deployable and can transform any space and fulfill any market demand, whether it’s a single unit in a restaurant or thousands of farming units chained together in a distribution center.

What can you grow? What’s been the hardest thing to grow? What’s been the craziest?

We have more than 65 herbs, micro-greens, and leafy greens as part of our catalog—from Italian Basil to Crystal Lettuce, to more special varieties like Peruvian Mint or Wasabi Rucola.

Are you collaborating with crop breeders to improve traits for indoor growing, boosting yields, taste and nutritional profiles? Can you mention any joint projects and what you have learned?

Yes, we are working with a range of responsible partners. However, we are more focused on optimized growing conditions and growing recipes than genetics at the moment as we see a huge untapped potential in improving yield, quality and consistency with that alone.

Where do you think AI will prove most useful in vertical farms by 2021?

AI can help collect and analyze data at a granularity that is remarkable for the agricultural industry. This data can be used to better plan and anticipate the growth patterns, yields and response of produce to different environmental circumstances in a way that allows farming to be implemented in a more strategic, efficient and ultimately sustainable way than ever before. Over the next several years, the marriage of real-time data capture and farming will truly revolutionize the agricultural industry.

Where will you expand to next?

We will continue to expand our operations in markets that will host the megacities of the future.

Corona-Update: French Supermarkets Heed The Call For 'Economic Patriotism'

Several weeks into this unfortunate COVID-19 situation, new developments still arise. There are the French supermarkets, heeding the call for what Le Maire termed "economic patriotism". In Germany, in places, the vegetable crops are under threat as there are no workers. Meanwhile, fruit and vegetable demand in Europe is booming.

In Canada, the pandemic also impacts economic activity and in Florida, the agricultural industry witnesses a drop in demand. In the Philippines, traders are going online to sell their mangoes, and the same might happen in India as their seems to be no demand for the Ulavapadu mangoes. This, and much more, in today's update.

France hopes people will 'buy French' as single market erodes
French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire issued a rallying cry to the nation’s supermarkets on 24 March: ‘Stock French products.’

Supermarkets in France have heeded the call for what Le Maire termed "economic patriotism".

French supermarket chain Carrefour has already moved to source 95% of its fruits and vegetables from within France. The supermarket industry’s trade body, La Féderation du Commerce et de la Distribution, told French business daily Les Echos that once fresh foreign produce runs out on French supermarket shelves, it won’t be replaced.

“Delegating our food supply […] to others is madness. We have to take back control,” French President Emmanuel Macron said in a speech just two weeks before Le Maire announced the economic measures.

But for a continent that has built an intricate agro-food market connected by cross-border supply chains, France’s plea to focus inwards for its food supply is a cause for concern for Brussels.

Also, with Covid-19 keeping foreign seasonal laborers away and time running out before fruit and vegetables rot, there has been an appeal to French people who are not currently working to help harvest crops and sow seeds. However, it has had mixed results.

A platform launched in mid-march called “Des bras pour ton assiette” has yielded around 150,000 applications so far but about 200,000 will be needed until the end of the harvest season in September, according to the FNSEA, the main agricultural sector union. The greatest need is in the South of France.

German vegetable crop threatened as virus shuts out workers
Currently, Germany’s fruit and vegetable harvest is under threat from the travel bans that are preventing Eastern Europeans from working on German farms, the BOGK association of German fruit and vegetable processors said on Monday.

Neighbouring Poland, the source of many of Germany’s seasonal workers and an important transit country for such workers from other Eastern European countries, has restricted foreigners from entering its territory in an effort to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

“The bans, which are preventing foreign seasonal workers entering the country, are endangering sowing, planting and harvesting,” the BOGK association said. “What is not harvested cannot be processed ... supplies for the population would no longer be secure from summer 2020.”

Germany itself has introduced temporary border controls on its frontiers with Austria, Switzerland, France, Luxembourg, and Denmark.

Fruit and vegetable demand in Europe is booming
The demand in Europe for fruit and vegetables has seen a large increase in recent weeks, which is being attributed to the measures and restrictions in relation to Covid-19. The European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Janusz Wojciechowski, outlined the increased demand at a meeting of the EU’s agriculture ministers last week.

“The consumption of fresh fruit and vegetables in the EU has been booming in recent weeks. Spain, Italy and the Netherlands report 40% increases, and Germany up to 100%. Demand is expected to stay strong during the containment period,” the commissioner explained.

However, some EU fruit exports have slowed down, particularly those destined for China. Citrus fruits from Spain have been most affected by this. Exports of these fruits from the country usually peak in March, April, and May. There appears to be limited opportunities to redirect these exports to other markets, the commissioner explained.

Statistics Canada expects COVID-19 to impact inflation
Statistics Canada expects the Corona-virus to impact inflation, already pointing downwards, as the pandemic impacts economic activity. Citing declining demand for travel and oil among other factors, the agency expects a notable impact on consumer prices for various goods in the foreseeable future.

“Because of these factors, as well as supply chain disruptions for consumer goods, temporary closures of some stores and service providers, the recent lowering of interest rates and the recent slowing of economic activity, the price effects of the outbreak could be more deeply felt in subsequent months,” it reads in an analysis of inflation figures released Friday.

Accounting for seasonal factors, inflation across Canada rose by 0.1 percent in February 2020, matching the increase in January 2020.

Florida’s agro-industry witnesses drop in demand
Those that are working in the US agricultural industry, especially those in Florida, are still feeling the impacts. The agricultural industry is the second biggest contributor to Florida's economy behind tourism. Small scale farmers across the state are seeing the biggest impacts from the pandemic.

John Hoblick, president of Florida Farm Bureau: "Smaller producers are usually a niche type producer that supply the restaurants or supply farmers markets and those because of the social aspects that we have to deal with you know have been shut down."

Another major concern comes in the form of labor. Farms who use the H2A program have seen a delay in those workers getting to our area.

Brittany Lee, a local blueberry farmer: "Our farm uses H2A contracted workers from Mexico and they have not arrived yet, which is a little stressful, but the association, Florida Farm Bureau, and Florida Fruit and Vegetable all have been working together with the US Department of Ag to expedite those worker visas for ag commodities. Last week and this week the demand is lower than the same weeks that correlate to 2019… and that’s concerning."

Moreover, the visa confusion in Mexico is keeping out agriculture workers. While it is watermelon season in Florida. But as the top U.S. watermelon-producing state prepares for harvest, many of the workers needed to collect the crop are stuck in Mexico, unable to secure visas.

Restricted visa services, quickly evolving regulations and increased border controls risk wider labor shortages in the United States produce industry that may leave grocery stores scrambling for fruits and vegetables as spring and summer harvests spread across the United States.

Washington farm industry faces logistics problems
As Spokane-area farmers have begun spring planting, apple growers set a new sales record during the panic buying as the region continues to adjust to a pandemic that has disrupted most daily lives.

But while items from flour to eggs have been flying off supermarket shelves, including a wild run on apples, that hasn’t immediately helped farmers in Washington, several industry experts said. The higher demand at grocery stores hasn’t covered the market drop for milk, beef and produce that had been sold to restaurants.

“So far, agriculture is doing better than equities,” said Randy Fortenbery, an agriculture economist at Washington State University. “But the risk is not so much what happens to prices, it’s more what happens to logistics. If we have problems getting product to port and vessels out to sea, that’s where we’ll see some potential problems.”

Guimaras, Philippines: Online selling to dispose of mangoes
The mango season in the Philippines’ island province of Guimaras finds growers denied their usual markets this year because COVID-19 has restricted tourist movements and canceled fiestas and trade fairs.

“(Mango farmers) asked for our help because they have a rich supply of mangoes but they find it difficult to sell due to the community quarantine imposed in other provinces,” Lenny S. Gonzaga, an economist at the Provincial Economic Development Office (PEDO), said last week.

Earlier this month, the provincial government banned the entry of tourists and non-essential persons following the COVID-19 outbreak. Iloilo City, the main gateway to the province, has also been placed under enhanced community quarantine to limit the movement of people.

“It has really had a huge impact on our farmers. Before the crisis, Guimaras mangoes were easy to sell and farmers had sure buyers. Now, many of their transactions were cancelled due to the travel restrictions,” Ms. Gonzaga said.

India: No demand for famed Ulavapadu mangoes in Prakasam
Mango growers in the Prakasam district are worried as the country-wide lockdown to prevent the spread of novel coronavirus coincided with the marketing of the king of fruits.

The output this year has been quite encouraging as there was good precipitation, ending five years of consecutive droughts. Flowering also occurred at the right time in December/January promising a yield of about five tonnes per acre.

But the outbreak of the dreaded disease has put paid to their hopes of reaping the benefits. Upcountry buyers, who used to make a beeline for the orchards in and around the ‘mango village’ of Ulavapadu in the district, have not turned up yet to confirm orders, a group of farmers from the village stated.

The best quality mangoes are normally moved to cities such as Chennai, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and from there to the US, Europe and West Asian countries.

Turkish citizens complain about high garlic prices

Turkish citizens who shop at the public market in Kirikkale can only buy 3 or 5 pieces while complaining about the high prices of garlic. A market tradesman who suggested that the reason for the increase in garlic prices was flooding, “Garlic is expensive because of the flooding. Because we don't have garlic in place, we are buying it for 40 liras, we sell it for 50 liras. There is no garlic anywhere in Kastamonu at the moment.

Kerala pineapple growers seek help as lockdown hits harvest
The initiative by the Indian federal government to help tomato farmers in Madhya Pradesh market their harvested stock has prompted Kerala’s pineapple growers to seek similar help from the authorities.

According to growers, around 5,000 tonnes of pineapple is ready for harvest across 45,000 acres in various parts of Kerala. However, the lockdown has adversely affected the harvest, leading to the decaying of the fruit. Around 1,000 tonnes have already rotten and the government should take urgent measures to resolve the crisis, said Baby John, president of Pineapple Growers Association Keralam.

The harvested fruit, he said, can be made available directly to the retail market in the State, which is facing a shortage of fruits and vegetables due to the disruption in cargo movement. Also, the government could consider including pineapple in the food kit being distributed to people affected by the lockdown, he added.

Union calls on the UK government to support the ferry industry
P&O Ferries is temporarily standing down 1,100 staff members in response to the coronavirus pandemic. The operator announced its decision yesterday and said it would be suspending its passenger services between Dover and Calais and focusing all its efforts on bringing in freight to the UK.

Chief executive Janette Bell said due to the pandemic, P&O Ferries was having to respond with new measures to keep the business operational and to keep freight moving.

She said: "With respect to the UK, we bring in about 15% of all the goods the country currently urgently needs. The biggest part of which is food, including fresh fruit and vegetables from southern Europe and North Africa, as well as vital medicines and medical equipment. P&O Ferries is also handling important, but hazardous goods, such as detergents and cleaning products.”

Fruit and veg group Total Produce warns about profits
Total Produce, the fruit and vegetable producer chaired by Carl McCann, has become the latest listed business to delay its planned shareholder meeting as it warned that full-year earnings, though expected to be “satisfactory” were now likely to be lower than in 2019.

In a Covid-19 update, the company said the spread of the coronavirus pandemic was having an increasingly significant impact on the global economy in the three weeks since it published its full-year results. At that time, Mr McCann had said the outbreak was not expected to have any material impact on Total Produce’s business, though he conceded it was too early to form a “definitive view.” However, the company said on Friday that its supply chains were functioning “adequately” and remained open in all its markets.

How the coronavirus crisis is affecting food supplies

Like other parts of the global economy, food supply chains have been disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic and empty supermarket shelves have become a symbol of the crisis.

An in-depth article about the way panic buying in some countries has led to some grocery staples like pasta and flour being sold out in supermarkets in recent weeks. Retailers say they are able to replenish most products while bakery and pasta firms in Europe and North America have cranked up production.

Food firms say panic purchases are subsiding once households have stocked up and as they adjust to lockdown routines. However, shoppers may have to get used to less varied or more local food offerings. Logistical snags from closed borders to reduced workforces are putting strain on usual supply routes, particularly for fresh produce.

The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation has warned that any rush by importers to buy staples could fuel global food inflation, despite ample reserves of staple crops. Swings in commodity markets are not necessarily passed on in prices of grocery goods, as food firms typically buy raw materials in advance. Some poorer countries also have subsidized food programs that ensure price stability.

Prices of fruit and veg in Argentina went up considerably
Since the implementation of the quarantine due to the coronavirus crisis last week, the prices of the basic Argentinian food basket saw some significant increases, especially those of basic products such as meat, fruit, and vegetables.

The increases occurred precisely in the items where demand was more concentrated and where the measurement of prices is more difficult since purchases are made in local shops, where controls are usually more lax.

Juan Ignacio Paolicchi, an economist with the consulting firm Eco Go, explains that “this is an atypical month in which there was a change in relative prices. “The consumption basket changed as demand fell in some segments that are not essential,” he says.

The Federal Administration of Public Revenues (AFIP) and the Ministry of Domestic Trade reported the results of the controls in different shops. “There were 1,605 price control and supply operations in shops during the first nine days of compulsory social isolation, in which violations of up to 100% of the audits carried out in one day were recorded”.

Davao City to buy vegetables off Filipino farmers
The Davao City government will buy the produce of vegetable farmers to help them cope up with the loss of income due to the community quarantine imposed amid the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak, Mayor Sara Duterte said Monday. She has stated that the vegetables from the affected farmers will be distributed to the residents for free. Duterte noted that several farmers have already complained that their livelihood had been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The demand for vegetables from restaurants has significantly declined after the city was placed under community quarantine on March 15, she said, citing their complaints. “The city agriculturist will buy the vegetables from the farmers since they have an issue with demand. Most restaurants only retained their take-out and food delivery services. In effect, there are fewer customers, and so they only buy fewer vegetables from the farmers,” Duterte explained.

Meanwhile, other sources point to a possible food shortage looms in parts of the Philippines. Faced with a looming food crisis, as the financial assistance promised by the Philippine government has yet to reach them, people in various parts of Luzon are left to their own devices to stave off hunger. A local government plans to distribute repacked vegetable seeds to help households grow "survival gardens".

Cambodian banana exports booming despite pandemic
Cambodia exported 72,182 tonnes of fresh yellow bananas to international markets during the first three month of this year, a Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries report said. Most of the bananas were exported to China, with the rest being shipped to Vietnam and Japan. Cambodia’s yellow banana exports to China have increased rapidly since the first shipment of bananas was sent in mid-2019.

Last year, Cambodia exported a total of 157,812 tonnes of yellow bananas and on average, it exports an average of more than 795 tonnes of bananas per day, the report said. Hun Lak, the director of Longmate Agriculture Co Ltd, which invests in 1,000ha of banana plantations in Kampot province, told The Post on Monday that China is the biggest market for his company.

India: Mother Dairy supplies 250 tonnes of fruits & vegetables
Mother Dairy on Monday supplied around 250 tonnes of fruits and vegetables to its retail stores ‘Safal’ across Delhi-NCR to meet local demand amid the nationwide lockdown, a senior company official said. Last week, the company had double its supply of fruits and vegetables in the Delhi-NCR at over 300 tonnes per day, as customers began panic-buying of household essentials after the announcement of the 21-day nationwide lockdown.

“We have supplied around 250 tonnes of fruits and vegetables today (Monday). The supply has come down from over 300 tonnes last week as panic-buying has stopped but still, it is more than normal,” PTI quoted Sood as saying.

Now that local vendors have the permission to sell fruits and vegetables in colonies, the demand at Safal stores has normalized. Due to the sufficient amount of supply of all vegetables in the local markets the prices of veggies like potatoes, tomatoes, and cauliflowers, too have come down.

Live streaming boosts Chinese farm produce sales
When Hangzhou Women’s Federation visited Dayang Town in Jiande County in late February, officials found that around 900 tons of mandarin oranges were difficult to sell because of the novel coronavirus outbreak. To help local farmers with their produce, the federation launched online sales on Taobao Live, a popular streaming platform. So far, the federation has held six sales promotions, resulting in online sales of 865 tons of Dayang’s mandarin oranges.

Produce from Tonglu, Jiande, Chun’an and Lin’an counties and Fuyang District have also been featured with sales worth 4 million yuan (US$ 563,500) in just nine days. The federation has established a department to direct live stream projects, inviting industry insiders and Internet celebrities to train women farmers.

“We hope more Internet celebrities will join the federation’s live stream activities. That is our responsibility to give a boost to public service projects, especially those related to women and children,” said Zhang Dayi, who has 11.72 million followers on social media.

Fruit exporters urge Thai growers to maintain sanitary standards
“Despite the Covid-19 crisis having a large negative impact on the economy, exports of fresh fruit from Thailand are still operational as demand from China continues, fruit exporters have urged Thai growers to ensure higher sanitary standards to protect the industry from the effects of the pandemic.” This from the president of Thai Fresh Fruit Traders and Exporters Association, Paiboon Wongchotesathit.

To safeguard the export market, Paiboon urged exporters to apply high sanitary standards to ensure that the shipments are not tainted with the Covid-19 virus, especially fruit like durian, longan, and mangosteen which are the main fruits that Thailand imports. He also asks exporters to make sure that workers wear face masks and to supply hand gel for food pickers and packers so their hands are frequently cleansed.

“If the workers are infected and transmit the virus to customers through droplets on products, the whole export industry will be ruined. Fruit exports, especially durian, will be able to achieve growth this year because Chinese consumers are likely to cut back on travel and focus on import and export.”

Mettupalayam auction halted; 80 tons of garlic with no takers
The Mettupalayam auction of garlic has come to a halt amid the Indian lockdown. Traders and farmers find it difficult to arrive for auction, and the regular procedures don’t hold, said garlic traders association president N.S.V. Arumukham.

Under usual circumstances, the garlic procured on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday would be stored separately. On Sunday, auctions are then held at six centers and garlic will be exported to other places. On an average 320 tons of garlic is auctioned where 200 farmers and around 350 traders attend.

At last Sunday's auction, 200 tons of garlic were sold. The remaining 80 tons have piled up with no takers.

Empty shelves incite some Brits to grow their own vegetables
Supermarket store shelves stripped of essentials and rationing of food delivery slots have brought the sustainability of UK supplies into question. Countries worldwide announcing nationwide lockdowns and workers falling ill or being forced to self-isolate have raised questions about where Britain’s produce comes from and who gets it to the supermarkets.

Over half of the UK’s food is produced by suppliers within the country, helping to lessen the impact of any potential disruption to shipping from overseas. Even so, the country is still reliant on the EU for over a quarter of its imports.

Some Britons are taking matters into their own hands. Sales of fruit and vegetable seeds have skyrocketed as people locked down in their own homes look for a productive way to fill their time and gardens, according to the Royal Horticultural Society.

Countries might start hoarding food, threatening global trade
It’s not just grocery shoppers who are hoarding pantry staples. Some governments are moving to secure domestic food supplies during the coronavirus pandemic. Kazakhstan, one of the world’s biggest shippers of wheat flour, banned exports of that product along with others, including carrots, sugar and potatoes. Vietnam temporarily suspended new rice export contracts. Serbia has stopped the flow of its sunflower oil and other goods, while Russia is leaving the door open to shipment bans and said it’s assessing the situation weekly.

To be perfectly clear, there have been just a handful of moves and no sure signs that much more is on the horizon. Still, what’s been happening has raised a question: Is this the start of a wave of food nationalism that will further disrupt supply chains and trade flows?

Korea’s Gangwon potatoes more popular than ever
Since securing a box of face masks during the coronavirus outbreak has become an impossible feat these days, some people have settled instead for a box of potatoes. To be exact, 10 kilograms (22 pounds) of potatoes for just 5,000 won ($4.10). The race to buy potatoes from Gangwon began with an idea thought up at the Gangwon Provincial Office in early March.

Governor Choi Moon-soon hosted a meeting at the office early in the month and told his staff about how many potato farmers in Gangwon no longer had retail partners due to school cafeterias remaining closed and local restaurants faring poorly in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak. According to the provincial government, there were as many 11,000 tons of potatoes harvested in October and November of 2019 that needed to be sold by April, when the next batch of potatoes needed to be planted.

In order to meet the heightened demand from consumers, the provincial government eventually secured 8,000 to 10,000 boxes a day. They still sold out within minutes.

Road Haulage and Freight Lobby gets official recognition for logistics workers
Official confirmation of the importance of logistics in this stressful time was given today in a letter from the Department for Transport clarifying that the essential roles played by road haulage drivers and others in the freight supply chain will not be interfered by officialdom who may otherwise misinterpret government guidelines about travel and work.

The letter, outlining that all travel related to the operation of logistics or necessary travel by logistics workers to places of work such as distribution centers is considered ‘essential travel’ in the context of current restrictions, was delivered to the Road Haulage Association (RHA) and the Freight Transport Association (FTA), both of whom have been closely involved in lobbying and advising the government on the specialties of their respective members.

Possible advantages of COVID 19 for the industry
Companies linked to agriculture, as providers of technology, services, training or knowledge, will see their demand redoubled by the entry of new actors to the undertakings of agricultural projects.

The world is in the midst of a systemic crisis. However, this is not an impediment to reflect and evaluate in a primary way the possible scenarios that can be created in the near future according to the behavior of society and the development of the pandemic.

At first glance, there is a consensus that the production, transport, distribution, and supply of agricultural food is a strategic and vital element for human survival, and, detaching from this, fresh and healthy foods are those that are privileged for consumption.

Companies linked to agriculture, as providers of technology, services, training or knowledge, will also see their demand redoubled by the entry of these new actors to the undertakings of agricultural projects.

WVDA works with local impacted producers and farmers
The West Virginia Department of Agriculture (WVDA) is working with local producers and farmers impacted by COVID-19 by facilitating communication between producers and potential buyers. Business development and marketing staff have received calls from multiple producers are who experiencing a surplus of food or other burdens due to the pandemic. To assist these affected businesses, the Department will provide an on-going directory to those who are interested in being connected with a local, West Virginia farmer and their availability of food.

“We are early in the growing season but many of our West Virginia farmers have lost potential buyers with the shutdown of business such as restaurants. That does not mean there is a lack of need within the food supply but an indication that many businesses have opted to close their businesses to help reduce the spread of the virus. Our hope is to connect those with food to those who need it,” said Commissioner of Agriculture Kent Leonhardt.

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Publication date: Tue 31 Mar 2020

Sobeys, Safeway To Produce Produce In, In-Store Farms

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MARCH 10, 2020

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Empire’s family of brands is partnering with Infarm, one of the world’s most advanced and fastest-growing in-store farming platforms, to grow and harvest a range of fresh produce in select Sobeys, Safeway and Thrifty Foods stores across Canada. Each vertical farming unit is a stand-alone ecosystem, enabled by machine learning and AI technology, that creates the optimum environment required for plants to flourish.“

Our goal at Empire is to be the fastest-growing and most innovative retailer in Canada. As we strive to achieve that goal, we continuously seek out first-to-market opportunities,” said Niluka Kottegoda, vice president of customer experience for Sobeys Inc. “Our partnership with Infarm is unique in Canada and offers our customers a world-leading urban farming solution. The products we will offer in-store are unique to customers in urban communities. We’re excited to test and learn with our customers along the way.”

Launching this Spring, the first fresh produce harvests will include a range of herbs at two Safeway stores in Vancouver. Empire will place farms in stores across seven cities in Canada, (Calgary, Edmonton, Halifax, Toronto, Vancouver, Victoria, Winnipeg) growing millions of hyper-local plants for our customers.“

Our partnership with Empire builds upon our vision to grow a resilient ecosystem that can help feed people living in cities around the world by 2050 while improving the environmental footprint of our food,” said Erez Galonska, co-founder and CEO of Infarm. “For example, through vertical farming, we can introduce plants to markets that were previously unavailable because they were too delicate to be transported. We’re proud to partner with Empire to share the Infarm revolution with Canadians.”

The in-store farms produce fresh, nutritious and flavourful produce all year round without the use of chemical pesticides. The vertical farms use 95 percent less water, 90 percent less transportation and 75 percent less fertilizer than industrial agriculture.

How it works:

Infarm has developed the world’s most advanced, sustainable, easily scalable and rapidly deployable modular farms.

Each in-store farm has a controlled energy-friendly environment designed to bring out the natural flavour and properties of each plant.

The plants are all grown in-store, dramatically reducing carbon emissions that result from transportation.

The individual farms are connected and remotely controlled from a central farming platform that gathers up-to-the-minute information about the growth of each plant and learns, adjusts and improves the growing conditions.

Colruyt Grows Basil In Self-Developed Vertical Farm

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On Tuesday, March 3rd, Colruyt Group introduced home-grown basil from a vertical farm. The fresh basil from the private label Boni Selection can be purchased from today in all 31 stores of Bio-Planet. Bio-Planet will also market-fresh coriander within months.

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Fabrice Gabbato

According to Fabrice Gobbato, director of Bio-Planet and Okay; sustainability is in Colruyt's DNA and they were looking for a way to make the range more sustainable. "The system is sustainable and local. We do not use plant protection products and the product travels a distance up to five times less. The plants also need less space, water, and nutrients, which means that the footprint of this product is very small."

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No organic label
"Although growing basil is quite difficult, we have opted for basil because there is a lot of demand for it," says Fabrice. "The basil plants are grown in a sustainable way but are not organic. The problem is that they are not grown in the open air, nor on biological substrate, which is why they do not receive an organic certificate.
The price that consumers pay for the fresh basil in the Bio-Planet stores is € 1.89, the normal market price."

Capacity: 250,000 plants
In the Colruyt distribution center, near the head office in the Netherlands, the retailer grows basil plants under violet light. "We have developed the entire installation, from ventilation to lamps, in collaboration with KU Leuven and UGent. We opted for our own installation because we mainly wanted to focus on energy efficiency, "says Wannes Voorend, R&D coordinator of Colruyt Group. "We are currently growing the plants on two layers of 450 square meters, with a capacity of 250,000 plants."

High technology
In the vertical farm, it is moist and the temperature is 30 ° C. "We use state-of-the-art technology whereby the plants receive a different mix of light, water, and air every day. This makes the plants stronger so that they can be kept longer. The right mix of red and blue light ensures that the plants contain more aroma and grow twice as fast, the R&D coordinator continues. We recycle all the water that the plants do not absorb or that evaporates. All the energy used by the vertical farm is green."

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Future plans
Colruyt is in charge of the entire cultivation process, from growing the seeds to packaging the mature plants. "We started this project about three years ago in a small aquarium with lamps and currently we can supply 31 stores. In the future we want to grow at more levels and also supply the other chains, but this is a step in the right direction. Currently, all operations in the vertical farm are still done manually. We intend to automate the entire process, but that is the future, "says Wannes.

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Empire Partners With Infarm To Bring Innovative And Sustainable In-Store Farms To Select Sobeys, Safeway And Thrifty Foods Stores

CNW Group March 9, 2020

National partnership to deliver fresh farmed and harvested in-store produce

STELLARTON, NS, March 9, 2020,/CNW/ - Empire's family of brands is partnering with Infarm, one of the world's most advanced and fastest-growing in-store farming platforms, to grow and harvest a range of fresh produce in select Sobeys, Safeway and Thrifty Foods stores across Canada. Each vertical farming unit is a stand-alone ecosystem, enabled by machine learning and AI technology, that creates the optimum environment required for plants to flourish.

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"Our goal at Empire is to be the fastest-growing and most innovative retailer in Canada. As we strive to achieve that goal, we continuously seek out first-to-market opportunities," said Niluka Kottegoda, Vice President Customer Experience, Sobeys Inc. "Our partnership with Infarm is unique in Canada and offers our customers a world-leading urban farming solution. The products we will offer in-store are unique to customers in urban communities. We're excited to test and learn with our customers along the way."

Launching this Spring, the first fresh produce harvests will include a range of herbs at two Safeway stores in Vancouver, 8475 Granville Street and 2733 West Broadway. Empire will place farms in stores across seven cities in Canada, ( Calgary, Edmonton, Halifax, Toronto, Vancouver, Victoria, Winnipeg ) growing millions of hyper-local plants for our customers.

"Our partnership with Empire builds upon our vision to grow a resilient ecosystem that can help feed people living in cities around the world by 2050 while improving the environmental footprint of our food," said Erez Galonska, co-founder and CEO of Infarm. "For example, through vertical farming, we can introduce plants to markets that were previously unavailable because they were too delicate to be transported. We're proud to partner with Empire to share the Infarm revolution with Canadians."

The in-store farms produce fresh, nutritious and flavourful produce all year round without the use of chemical pesticides. The vertical farms use 95 percent less water, 90 percent less transportation and 75 percent less fertilizer than industrial agriculture.

How it works:

• Infarm has developed the world's most advanced, sustainable, easily scalable and rapidly deployable modular farms.

• Each in-store farm has a controlled energy-friendly environment designed to bring out the natural flavour and properties of each plant.

• The plants are all grown in-store, dramatically reducing carbon emissions that result from transportation.

• The individual farms are connected and remotely controlled from a central farming platform that gathers up-to-the-minute information about the growth of each plant and learns, adjusts and improves the growing conditions.

About Empire

Empire Company Limited (EMP-A.TO) is a Canadian company headquartered in Stellarton, Nova Scotia . Empire's key businesses are food retailing, through wholly-owned subsidiary Sobeys Inc., and related real estate. With approximately $25.6 billion in annualized sales and $13.8 billion in assets, Empire and its subsidiaries, franchisees, and affiliates employ approximately 123,000 people.

About InFarm

Founded in 2013 by Osnat Michaeli and the brothers Erez and Guy Galonska, Infarm combines highly efficient vertical farms with IoT technologies and Machine Learning, to offer an alternative food system that is resilient, transparent, and affordable. The company distributes its smart modular farms throughout the urban environment to grow fresh produce for the city's inhabitants. With cutting edge R&D, patented technologies, and a leading multi-disciplinary team, Infarm was founded on a visionary mission: helping cities become self-sufficient in their food production while significantly improving the safety, quality, and environmental footprint of our food. Infarm currently operates across Denmark, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the United Kingdom, the United States and Switzerland where it has deployed more than 500 farms in stores and distribution centres.

Infarm (CNW Group/Empire Company Limited)

SOURCE Empire Company Limited

Sobeys, Safeway, Thrifty Foods Adding In-Store Hydroponic Farms

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By Abby Kleckler - 03/09/2020

Empire's family of brands has partnered with in-store farming technology company Infarm to add vertical farming units to select Sobeys, Safeway and Thrifty Foods stores in Canada. The first stand-alone ecosystems will launch this spring at two Safeway stores in Vancouver, British Columbia, followed by additional stores in seven Canadian cities: Calgary, Edmonton, Halifax, Toronto, Vancouver, Victoria, and Winnipeg.

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Shoppers in the United States can already find Infarm systems like this one at some Kroger-owned QFC banners in Washington state

"Our goal at Empire is to be the fastest-growing and most innovative retailer in Canada. As we strive to achieve that goal, we continuously seek out first-to-market opportunities," said Niluka Kottegoda, VP customer experience at Stellarton, Niva Scotia-based Sobeys Inc. "Our partnership with Infarm is unique in Canada and offers our customers a world-leading urban farming solution. The products we will offer in store are unique to customers in urban communities. We're excited to test and learn with our customers along the way."

The in-store farms use machine learning and AI technology to produce fresh, nutritious and flavorful produce year-round without the use of chemical pesticides. The vertical farms use 95% less water, 90% less transportation and 75% less fertilizer than industrial agriculture does.

Infarm currently operates in the United States — through its partnership with Kroger at some QFC banner stores in Washington — Denmark, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the United Kingdom and Switzerland. 

"Our partnership with Empire builds upon our vision to grow a resilient ecosystem that can help feed people living in cities around the world by 2050, while improving the environmental footprint of our food," said Erez Galonska, co-founder and CEO of Berlin, Germany-based Infarm. "For example, through vertical farming, we can introduce plants to markets that were previously unavailable because they were too delicate to be transported. We're proud to partner with Empire to share the Infarm revolution with Canadians."

Grocery Micro-Farms Take Off

Kroger And Infarm Install Vertical Farms In Stores

By Phil Lempert on Feb. 24, 2020

In our annual trend report three years ago we correctly predicted that the time has come for supermarkets to install their own indoor farms, in which shoppers could pick their own produce right from the farm—the ultimate in freshness, taste and local. Kroger is leading the way by adding these mini-farms to two of its Quality Food Centers (QFC) stores in the state of Washington.

Kroger has teamed up with Infarm, a six-year-old startup based in Germany, to install modular vertical farms. In these mini-farms, which use a hydroponic farming method, nine varieties of lettuce and herbs are stacked in rows and grown in nutrient-rich water until they are mature enough to be sold to customers.

Infarm has more than 500 such installations in stores and distribution centers in other parts of the world, but this is its first installations in U.S. grocery stores. The growing process at the two pilot stores involves LEDs and an irrigation system with recycled water.

Infarm uses a cloud-based technology system to remotely control the temperature and lighting for each of its farms.“

Customers today want transparency; they want to know exactly where their product is from, the provenance where it was grown,” said Suzy Monford, Kroger’s group VP of fresh foods.

The program has already been deemed a success by Kroger. Monford said the stores have been selling everything from kale to cilantro as fast as the plants have been able to mature. Kroger has announced plans to expand vertical farming to 13 more QFCs in Washington and Oregon by April.

Infarm’s the ultimate goal is to make local food production mainstream. “For the bulk of the last century, food has been produced far from where it is consumed, generating a supply chain that is environmentally unsustainable,” said Osnat Michaeli, the company’s co-founder and chief brand officer. “Our modular farms offer the potential of turning the supply chain on its head by building the world’s first global farming network.”

FRESH FOOD  SUSTAINABILITY  THE LEMPERT REPORT 

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Locally Grown Salad Supplier Expands Distribution In The Mid-Atlantic

Including All 330 Virginia Food Lion stores

BrightFarms, a supplier of locally grown salads for supermarkets, is expanding distribution in the Mid-Atlantic with retail partner, Ahold-Delhaize USA. The expansion will include over 330 Food Lion stores throughout the state of Virginia that will be serviced from BrightFarms’ Culpeper, Virginia greenhouse.

Since 2016, BrightFarms locally grown salads have been sold throughout the Mid-Atlantic in more than 160 Giant Landover stores. The new Food Lion stores will expand BrightFarms’ reach into Virginia Beach, Williamsburg, and communities in western Virginia. It will also strengthen BrightFarms’ presence in Charlottesville, Richmond, and Norfolk, growing the company’s customer base and making its local, pesticide-free produce accessible to more consumers. The Food Lion portfolio will include popular BrightFarms’ varieties like Sunny Crunch, Baby Spinach, Spring Mix, Baby Arugula and Mixed Greens.

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BrightFarms’ Culpeper greenhouse has also supplied GIANT Food Stores in Pennsylvania since 2017. Increasing consumer demand from those stores led BrightFarms to open its newest greenhouse in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania earlier this year. GIANT began sourcing product from the 280,000 sq. ft. Selinsgrove greenhouse earlier this month, enabling the Culpeper greenhouse to begin supplying all Food Lion stores in Virginia.

“Ahold-Delhaize USA is a leader in local produce. Since launching with Giant Landover in 2016, we’ve been fortunate to partner with several of their brands,” said Steve Platt, CEO of BrightFarms. “With our increased capacity on the East Coast, we're thrilled that we now have the opportunity to supply Food Lion’s Virginia stores with our fresh, delicious and pesticide-free greens.”

“Food Lion is committed to providing locally sourced, fresh, healthy and affordable produce for our customers across the towns and cities we serve. We’re excited about this expanded partnership with BrightFarms, which will expand our ability to deliver to our Virginia customers the high-quality, locally grown salad greens they expect from Food Lion,” said Chris Dove, Food Lion’s vice president of Produce Category and Merchandising.

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For more information:
Amanda Mantiply
BrightFarms
Tel: 443.961.2418
Email: amanda@abelcommunications.com
www.brightfarms.com

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Publication date: Fri 28 Feb 2020

Irma To Introduce Vertical Farming In 35 Stores In Denmark

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February 18, 2020

Coop Denmark has announced plans to introduce vertical farming in some 35 Irma outlets, in collaboration with Germany's infarm.

The retailer plans to roll out the technology in its stores over the next two months, after a successful pilot project in its Østerport store last year.

'An Innovative Concept'

Infarm has devised an innovative concept that allows retailers to grow herbs and certain leafy vegetables in stores, using vertical farming units.

The cultivation of the herbs and vegetables require very little water and no synthetic pesticides.

The process also minimizes the requirement of transportation from farms to store shelves.

Commenting on the initiative, Irma director Søren Steffensen described vertical farming as the "way of the future to grow vegetables. With this collaboration, we unite Irma's goal of promoting the most sustainable forms of production and the best possible quality of taste."

Read More: Financial Cost Of 'Vertical Farming' An Impediment To Sector's Expansion

Founded in Berlin in 2013, infarm is now present in France, Luxembourg, Switzerland.

In September 2019, it partnered with Marks & Spencer to introduce the technology in its Clapham Junction store in South West London.

Two months later, US retailer Kroger announced plans to launch the concept in its outlets across North America.

 Fresh Produce tagged: Trending Posts / Sustainability / Denmark / Copenhagen / Irma / Vertical Farming / infarm

© 2020 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Dayeeta Das. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.

Infarm’s Tech-Powered Micro Farms Deliver Fresh Produce On-Site In Urban Settings

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By Liz Vaknin, NoCamels February 18, 2020

Environment News Health News

What started as a small initiative in 2013 by Israeli-born brothers Guy and Erez Galonska and Osnat Michaeli to cultivate greens in the dead of the German winter, grew into a multinational brand that, in just six short years, has managed to draw a decent amount of media attention and bring in an impressive $134.1 million to date from investors.

Based in Berlin, Infarm has been pioneering a whole new wave of agricultural innovation with its product, a modular smart farm that operates on IoT and machine learning technologies to produce highly nutritious and flavorful greens that are grown fresh and sold in urban environments, such as local supermarkets and restaurants.

In recent years, the field of urban farming has rapidly expanded on a global level and has been especially successful in places where the growing climate is seasonal and temperamental, like Canada or Saudia Arabia, or where the demands of a developing population can no longer be met solely by traditional farming practices due to spatial, financial and environmental concerns. Large, industrial-scale farms that produce food hundreds and thousands of miles away from the final destination are slowly proving their inability to provide a constant, safe supply of produce, especially leafy greens, and sometimes result in public safety horrors that damage consumer trust and company valuations. 

Infarm’s model is based on hydroponics (a method of growing plants without soil), patented modular ‘growth trays’ and energy tech. The company puts a premium on nutrition, taste, and freshness while also emphasizing an environmentally conscious approach. The Galonska brothers told Friends of Friends, an interview-focused Berlin magazine, in 2014 that they were inspired in part by NASA’s biofarming methods and sustainable design.

“For us, there is an important combination between gardens, flowers, trees – which is nature – and this more futuristic side of things: LED, artificial light, hydroponic fogs, the more NASA-style elements. We combine these two sides through experience. Experience for Infarm means tasty food: herbs from the vertical garden, for tea, for salads, for fresh products of any kind,” according to Erez Galonska.

Infarm’s unique, cloud-based technology allows its operators to monitor a network of 678 micro farms (and growing) from its Berlin headquarters, gathering data to offer the highest quality products, and making it easy for their clients to sell the just-harvested greens. The systems produce enough still-living micro-greens, salad greens, and herbs to serve thousands of city dwellers which would not have ready access to that degree of freshness otherwise.

This approach also does away with food miles and has created an opportunity to provide the most nutritious versions of greens, even introducing plants that were previously unavailable because they do not transport well. According to Infarm, their system uses 95 percent less water and 75 percent less fertilizers to grow the produce. There are no chemical pesticides involved, and their product demands 90 percent less transportation and 99 percent less space than traditionally farmed lettuces and herbs.

Moreover, the cloud-based technologies utilized to monitor the growing processes of their micro-farms continuously feed data into their IoT and machine learning algorithms to maximize their growing methods according to criteria such as yield and nutrition. With 22 varieties of leafy greens and herbs, Infarm’s systems offer a range of flavors, shapes, and textures that truly embody the values of farm-to-table cuisine.

From trailer to brand

Erez Galonska told EU Startups in September that he and his co-founders “realized that our current food system’s biggest deficiency is that it is too far removed from the people it is trying to feed.”

At Infarm, “rather than asking ourselves how to fix these deficiencies in the current supply chain, we looked to redefining the entire chain from start to finish; Instead of building large-scale farms outside of the city, optimizing on a specific yield, and then distributing the produce, we decided it would be more effective to distribute the farms themselves throughout the city,” he explained.

The founders, he went on, came around the idea that “being close to the land and particularly its produce is vital to our health and creativity as a society. And from the beginning, we began to explore – through travel, growing and experimentation –  ways to bring natural vitality of the local farm into the city and the freshness and flavor back into our lives.”

They began by building a hydroponic system in their home in Neukölln, creating a space for over 100 plants. “It was snowing outside and we had fresh vegetables inside,” Galonska recalled in the Friends of Friends interview, telling the magazine that from that moment “we knew that we had something.” The founders then moved to a studio and eventually bought a 1955 Airstream trailer, converting it into a mobile vertical farm and setting up shop in a popular urban farm space in the city.

“This trailer became a hub for our early experimentation, where visitors could harvest herbs and microgreens and we could welcome a vibrant community of urban planners, designers, food activists, bio-dynamic farmers, architects, chefs, biologists, and hackers to explore the diverse challenges behind making urban farming a reality. This research station and lab would form the beginnings of what we today call Infarm,” Galonska told EU startups.

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Infarm’s urban farming system in Germany. Photo via Kroger

Infarm’s urban farming system at M&S. Photo: Samuel Cane / Marks & Spencer

The company scaled in Berlin, earning a grant from Horizon 2020 in 2017 and later partnering with Metro Group, one of Europe’s biggest wholesalers. In 2018, Infarm expanded and secured partnerships with two large German grocery chains and a number of restaurants. It also raised significant funding ($25 million from Balderon Capital) and launched its first Infarm system in France that same year.

By 2019, Infarm expanded to two other European cities, London and most recently Copenhagen. In London, where the company has a partnership with Marks and Spencer, Paul Willgoss, Director of Food and Technology for the British chain, said in a press release that the collaboration is a “fantastic example of what can happen when passionate agricultural, food and technology experts work together. We operate as part of a complex global food supply chain and want to understand the emerging technologies that could help provide more sustainable solutions, whilst also delivering fantastic products with exceptional taste, quality, and freshness for our customers”.

Following a recent $100 million Series B round and a partnership deal with Kroger, the highest-grossing American supermarket chain, Infarm is also poised to rapidly expand in the American market.

Launching in Seattle, a city notorious for the amount of rain it receives annually, Infarm is set to prove how valuable its product is when the local climate is not conducive to growing anything, let alone delicate greens, in the depths of winter.

In a televised interview with Bloomberg, when asked how Infarm plans to spend the new investment, Erez Galonska responded by saying that “a big part of this round is really to start thinking about how we can build Infarm into a global company, expanding into the US and Asia, and building those relationships.”

SEE ALSO: Israel’s Unique Successes in AgTech May Help Stem Looming World Food Crisis

With partners like Kroger Group, Infarm is on the right track. “Kroger believes that everyone deserves access to fresh, affordable and delicious food, no matter who you are, how you shop or how you like to eat,” said Suzy Munford, Kroger Group’s VP of Fresh, at the first Infarm harvest in the QFC Kirkland store in Seattle in early December 2019. “Our partnership with Infarm allows us to innovate by combining ground-breaking in-store farming technology with our passion for fresh, local produce and ecological sourcing. Kroger is excited to be first to market and offer the best of the season, and we’re proud to lead the US on this journey.”

According to the Seattle Times, after the second location in Bellevue has opened, there are plans to open up in fifteen more QFC supermarkets in Washington and Oregon by April of 2020.

With an average of three new locations per month, Infarm is expanding at a rapid pace that isn’t uncommon for tech startups that reach the west coast. Hopefully, the cofounders have learned from the mistakes of other west coast based agricultural technology startups, and are prepared with data-backed solutions to tackle significant logistical, infrastructural and marketing issues that frequently arise in this niche vertical.

Lead Photo: Infarm's urban farming system in Germany. Photo via Kroger

The Inside Scoop On Indoor Farming

Grocers look to indoor farming to

source a steady stream of local greens

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By Jennifer Strailey 

Feb. 03, 2020

Food retailers from coast to coast are increasingly turning to indoor, vertical and greenhouse farming to meet the demand for locally grown produce, reduce food miles and offer the freshest product possible. Some, such as Tops Friendly Markets in Williamsville, N.Y., are partnering with greenhouse operators off-site, while others, such as Whole Foods Market and The Kroger Co., work with greenhouse and indoor farming experts to grow on-site and in-store.“As our climate continues to change in primary growing regions, Mother Nature continues to add challenges that are very hard for growers to overcome.

Customers are demanding we have product regardless of that,” says Jeff Cady, director of produce and floral for Tops. “Greenhouses give us an opportunity to meet our customers’ needs day in and day out.”

Tops has partnered with greenhouse builder and operator BrightFarms of Irvington, N.Y., to offer shoppers lettuce, arugula, and spinach grown closer to home—specifically in a Wilmington, Ohio, greenhouse about 400 miles from Tops’ distribution center. “The idea was to try and take miles out of the supply chain and ultimately get as fresh a product as we can for our customers,” Cady says.

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Photograph courtesy of BrightFarms

Cady, who estimates Tops sells 25% to 35% more greenhouse-grown produce than it did five years ago, sees continued potential for growth.“We will expand as products come online. Greenhouse-grown strawberries were not available five years ago. We have been bringing them in and have had very good results,” he says. “Perception is reality. Add in the perceived food safety and environmentally friendly components, and greenhouses will continue to thrive.

”In-Store Farming  

The Kroger Co. recently partnered with Infarm, an indoor farming company based in Berlin, to bring high-tech modular farms inside its U.S. stores. The program, which began with 15 QFC stores in Bellevue and Kirkland, Wash., grows leafy greens inside glass tanks located in the produce department.

“Kroger believes that everyone deserves to have access to fresh, affordable and delicious food, no matter who you are, how you shop or what you like to eat,” Suzy Monford, Kroger’s group VP of fresh, said in November when announcing the Infarm partnership, which she said enables the Cincinnati-based chain “to innovate by combining groundbreaking in-store farming technology with our passion for fresh, local produce and ecological sourcing.

”The alliance with Kroger marks the first U.S. rollout for Infarm, which was founded in 2013 and has more than 500 farms in food stores and distribution centers in Germany, Switzerland, France, Luxembourg, and the U.K. Infarm remotely controls growing conditions at its units through a cloud-based farming platform that adjusts to the specific needs of each plant. The company says it can re-create growing conditions from around the world, bringing plants that were previously too delicate, rare or expensive to stores.“

The grocery retailer landscape is facing increased competition and demand for fresh herbs and leafy greens,” says Jeffrey Landau, director of business development for Agritecture Consulting in New York. “Vertical-farming companies such as Square Roots, Infarm and Dream Harvest Farming Co. are providing grocery stores with a fresher product that has a longer shelf life due in part to being grown within a few miles, if not feet from the store.”

Agritecture consults across the board, from controlled-environment agriculture (CEA) operations (both greenhouse and indoor vertical) to soil-based farms. Clients such as New York-based Square Roots, which grows all of its produce in modified shipping containers using 100% artificial light, sells throughout New York City to Whole Foods, the Greene Grape, C-Town and more.

Vertical vs. Greenhouse

The vertical-farming market is anticipated to reach $9.96 billion by 2025, according to a recent report by San Francisco-based Grand View Research, which points to increased use of internet of things sensors for producing crops, as well as the growth in agriculture automation and the use of big data to maximize yields as market drivers.

In the vertical-farming industry, there have been several high-profile capital funding deals within the past few years, says Landau. AeroFarms of Newark, N.J., raised $100 million in Series E funding and announced it will invest $42 million to build its largest facility to date, in Danville, Va. Investors have also backed Infarm, which raised $100 million in Series B funding in June 2019, and San Francisco’s Plenty, which raised an industry record of $200 million in Series B funding in 2017.“

All in all, the vertical-farming industry is on pace for substantial growth,” Landau says. “As it compares to the greenhouse industry, vertical farming is still a relatively new industry and profitability is not guaranteed. Most large-scale vertical farms take at least six years to return on their investment. However, greenhouse operations, if done correctly, can be profitable within the first two to three years of operation.”

As a result, the greenhouse industry has also experienced considerable growth in recent years. Both New York-based Gotham Greens and BrightFarms received substantial equity funding ($29 million and $55 million, respectively) in June 2018, while Little Leaf Farms of Devens, Mass., received $18 million in financing from Bank of America in December 2019, to be followed by an additional $20 million.“It’s difficult to say which one is growing faster, but it is clear from the numbers that both industries are experiencing strong growth,” Landau says.   

Little Leaf Farms produces more than 1 million boxes of fresh greenhouse-grown baby green lettuce a month. Its greens are delivered to every major supermarket chain in New England in 24 hours, year-round

.When the company expands from five acres to 10 acres with the opening of a new Devens greenhouse in May 2020, its production of sustainably grown lettuce will double to 2 million boxes delivered to New York and New Jersey’s major supermarket chains, said Little Leaf.

Two-Mile-Farm to Fork

Denver-based Altius Farms is redefining the meaning of local for area restaurants and retailers. The vertical farm, which can be seen through tall glass windows above a popular downtown Denver restaurant, sells to 40 area restaurants and five local grocers, including Leevers Locavore, Choice Market and Marczyk Fine Foods.

All of Altius Farms’ highly perishable salad greens, herbs, and edible flowers are sold within a 10-mile radius, with the majority sold within a 2-mile radius. “We want to reduce our food miles and change the way we grow food. [Vertical farming] also reduces waste and depreciation of flavor content,” says Sally Herbert, Altius Farms co-founder, and CEO.

Increased production that uses fewer resources within a smaller footprint is another benefit of vertical farming. “We can grow 10 times the amount of produce than conventional farming,” says Herbert, former president and CEO of GS1, the largest supply-chain standards organization in the world.

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Photograph courtesy of Altius Farms

Altius Farms cultivates 12 to 14 harvests on a series of 8-foot towers each year, producing 37,000 pounds of greens annually. “It’s a lot of bang for your buck,” she says. But the labor costs associated with vertical farming can be steep. “Labor is responsible for 40% to 50% of the cost of sale, and in some cases even higher.”

The higher price point for some indoor-grown greens means that consumer education is critical to category success.“

The consumer has to make a choice. We’ve got to get them to see the value of local. Small-format grocers are wonderful to work with and are really our partners in this,” says Herbert, whose Altius Farms leads in-store samplings to educate and inform consumers. “Whenever we do a Saturday demo at the grocery, we see an uptick in sales.

”Promoting local is also key. Choice Market uses little flags in its cold cases to alert shoppers that Altius Farms’ greens are a local product grown up the road.“Social media is also pretty important these days,” says Herbert, who points to grocery partners who have touted recipes featuring Altius local greens on their websites and digital communications. “It brings the product to the customer in a more personal way.”

For Herbert, who has worked for many years as a supply-chain executive, Altius Farms offers a solution in providing responsibly grown fresher food. “This is one way to grow. Mass-produced in a warehouse is also a way to grow, as is farming outdoors,” she says. “It’s not about a right way or a wrong way—it’s about giving movement to growing closer to consumption so we can start to see the impact on the climate and quality of product.”

Local Year-Round

U.S. consumers will place increased pressure on manufacturers to produce locally in 2020 and beyond, according to new research from New York-based Nielsen, which finds that local ingredients and food sourced and produced close to home are important to nearly half (48%) of consumers.

As locally grown, fresher produce continues to top the list of consumer demands, Steve Platt, CEO of BrightFarms, sees continued growth in greenhouse cultivation. Since 2016, BrightFarms has partnered with Ahold Delhaize USA’s Giant Food Stores and its supermarkets under the Giant and Martin’s banners, as well as Kroger’s Roundy’s.

“They chose to work with us early on because they saw the enormous potential of a year-round local program in the salad category,” says Platt. “These partnerships continue to play a major role in the growth of our company and are our primary focus. As early believers in fresh and local food, our retail partners have seen category growth beyond their competitors.”  At press time in January, BrightFarms was on track to open a new Selinsgrove, Pa., greenhouse, which will service customers in the New York and New Jersey metro areas. The greenhouse grower’s operations have expanded by about 420,000 square feet to 740,000 square feet in the past several years.

“This growth is a direct result of the growing demand from new and existing retail partners,” says Platt, citing SPINS data that “shows that when retailers introduce our products, their salad category grows.

”Concerns around food safety are also driving demand for produce grown indoors, Platt says. “Leafy greens grown in controlled, indoor environments, like a greenhouse, deliver a structurally safer supply chain for retailers and consumers,” he says. “By growing indoors, we eliminate many of the risk factors associated with field-grown produce like agricultural water and proximity to animals.”

BrightFarms grows, packs and distributes its greens from one farm labeled clearly on the package. This “avoids co-mingled processing facilities that make it extremely difficult to trace pathogens back to a single contamination source,” says Platt.

Lead Photo: Photograph: Shutterstock

PRODUCE  SUPPLY CHAIN  SUSTAINABILITY 

For In-Store Farms To Succeed, Finding The Right Balance Is Key

High-tech growing operations promise to efficiently supply retailers with greens. But the bigger payoff may be in offering shoppers a bit of food theater.

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Credit: Jeff Wells

AUTHOR: Lauren Stine

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Feb. 6, 2020

To appeal to consumers' growing desire for transparency and to know where their food came from, retailers across the country have brought local products into their aisles. They've also created informational web pages, integrated with nutrition apps and encouraged suppliers to tell their story to customers.

With 95% of consumers saying they'll pay more for locally grown products and 21% saying they eat local at least twice a week, though, companies are feeling the pressure to up the ante. Some, like Kroger and Whole Foods, have taken that step by bringing high-tech produce farms into their aisles — a budding movement that's made possible by advancements in growing technology.

Discover how to improve engagement among hourly employees by providing predictability and flexibility.

“Across the indoor farming industry, there have been dramatic decreases in cost when it comes to the physical hardware, advanced LED lighting and technology platforms automating a lot of the growth cycle,” Alexander Olsen, founder of automated mini-farm purveyor Babylon Micro-Farms, told Grocery Dive.

As more and more retailers discuss shifting center store operations online and accentuating the store perimeter, miniature produce farms promise to offer a supply line as well as a touch of food theater.

“We are also seeing a lot of traditional goods that grocers stock being purchased online and it’s freeing up a lot of space in-store,” Olsen said.

Retailers have been bringing cultivation to their stores for several years now. As early as 2012, Rouses sought to dazzle shoppers with an aeroponic garden on the rooftop of one of its New Orleans store locations. Hy-Vee and H-E-B's Central Market stores have also experimented with growing operations, with the latter adding a 53-foot modified shipping container full of greens to one of its Dallas stores.

Whole Foods has established a few different store growing operations. In 2018, it added an in-store mushroom growing display inside its Bridgewater, New Jersey store. The system was provided by Smallhold, a Brooklyn-based indoor farming company that also sells its mushrooms to local restaurants. A few years earlier, the chain partnered with urban greenhouse operator Gotham Greens to open a growing facility on top of a Brooklyn store location.

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Credit: Kroger

The trend has gained momentum in Europe and Japan. Founded in 2013, Berlin-based InFarm has placed its in-store farms, which grow leafy greens, herbs, and vegetables, in hundreds of European stores, while Amazon Fresh sells its produce in Germany, France, and Switzerland. Last year, the company raised $100 million in Series B funding. 

InFarm recently made its U.S. debut with two Kroger-owned QFC stores in Seattle and will bring its sprigs of kale, mint, cilantro, and dill to 13 more banner locations this year. The greens are initially planted at a nearby distribution center before being transferred to the store, where each plant's growth is monitored remotely by the company. The price points for the greens are competitive at $2.99 per bunch. 

Grocery Dive reached out to Kroger and Whole Foods for comment but did not hear back by press time.​

InFarm has lofty ambitions for its in-store farms, hoping to significantly impact grocery and restaurant supply chains, according to co-founder and CMO Osnat Michaeli. 

“By growing produce on-demand and as close to possible to where it’s consumed, retailers are able to reduce food waste and sunk costs typically linked to industrial farming,” Michaeli wrote in an email to Grocery Dive. “We find that when retailers are able to understand the value, quality and flexibility of our business model they are more than enthusiastic to enter into conversations to explore our farms.”

Retail attraction or real action?

Although in-store farm displays and gardens are attractive additions, farming is no small feat even at a micro-scale. 

“I think this trend is going to be closer to food theater and closer to a niche that engages the public and excites them about fresh produce,” Neil Mattson, associate professor at Cornell’s School of Integrative Plant Science, told Grocery Dive. Through his research, Mattson specializes in controlled environment agriculture systems such as hydroponics. 

Operating an in-store farm is not for the novice beginner, he adds, noting that a retailer or its farming partner will have to allocate employees to monitoring the in-store farm to ensure it’s working properly. This requires intensive training, adds labor hours and could take the employee away from other tasks that still need doing.

If an in-store farm is not operating properly, the plants could fall victim to unsightly mold, disease and other issues that would make the display unappetizing to shoppers. Should a situation like this arise, the plants must be stripped out immediately and all surfaces must be sanitized, leaving an empty display, said Mattson.

Even for high-tech farming systems that are remotely monitored, Mattson has concerns about long-term success.

"Plants are biological systems so sometimes they don’t grow as fast as you think they should or some other factor becomes limiting and you have to adjust," he explained. 

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Credit: Pixabay

Mattson also questions whether an in-store farm could supply enough produce to be more than just an interesting display for consumers. Produce sales in the U.S. totaled $60.8 billion during 2018, representing a 1.7% increase over the prior year. The input costs for indoor farming systems, namely water, and around-the-clock electricity to power LED lights, are also substantial barriers even for large-scale indoor growing operations.

“It’s hard to foresee this producing the quantities of produce at the price points needed to become the widespread way that most Americans would buy their lettuce," Mattson said. "I think it is an expensive way to grow produce in a supermarket.” 

High-tech farming operations have struggled to overcome high costs in the past, but the new crop of companies like InFarm and Babylon claim their systems are much more cost-effective and scalable. 

To the extent that a retailer could overcome these challenges, benefits to having an in-store farm would include cutting out distributors and other middlemen, who often hike up the price of produce, and increasing store traffic, Mattson said. He believes the success of in-store farms may depend on balancing production needs and efficiency with the desire to amuse consumers.

Mattson said a larger-scale operation like Whole Foods' rooftop farm in Brooklyn offers the benefits of a customer draw with a more viable supply line. In recent years, retailers have also turned to large greenhouse and vertical farming operations to supply stores. Gotham Greens operates greenhouses in five states while BrightFarms operates greenhouses in four states and supplies to retailers like Giant Food, Acme and Food Lion. 

Finding the middle ground

For Brooklyn-based grower and Whole Foods partner Smallhold, providing mushrooms first and in-store farms second has been a recipe for success. The duo behind the operation started out in a shipping container offering locally grown mushrooms to restaurants. They began asking their buyers whether they could fit a mini mushroom farm on-site and were encouraged enough to start modeling a prototype. 

Whole Foods Local Forager Elly Truesdell ate lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant where one of Smallhold’s mushroom farms is located and promptly contacted the company to see about locating one at a Whole Foods store, according to co-founder Adam DeMartino. 

“We didn’t intend to start a produce brand, it just sort of happened and a lot of that was because of Whole Foods,” DeMartino told Grocery Dive.

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Today, Smallhold maintains mini mushroom farms in restaurants and retail locations, including two Whole Foods stores. It also sells mushrooms under a branded label. 

Smallhold visits retail locations where its mini-farms are located once a week to swap out materials and harvest mushrooms. To achieve the volume that a retailer like Whole Foods demands, the company breaks up the growth process, completing the final stages, or fruiting, in-store. Mushrooms have an advantage over other crops grown indoors because of the high weight per square foot that mushrooms usually yield, according to DeMartino.

“Is it right for everyone? I’m not sure. That’s why it’s not the only thing we do,” co-founder Andrew Carter added. “How we look at it is we are offering a bunch of different tools to accomplish the task of getting mushrooms into the hands of everyone in the U.S. and hopefully the world. One of these tools is increasing the visibility of farming by growing on-site.”

Can Vertical Farming Ever Become Mainstream?

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By Simon Harvey | 28 January 2020

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Infarm's systems deployed in M&S

Amid the growing concerns about climate change and feeding the world's increasing population, especially in urban conurbations in developing countries, Simon Harvey investigates whether vertical farming – growing fresh produce in a controlled environment – can become well-established in the market.

The nascent vertical-farming industry is growing and gaining prominence among investors and governments that recognize the potential in a world where land availability for producing fresh food is fast diminishing, especially in countries with increasing urban populations.

Singapore is a prime example of an economy with a limited landmass for agricultural farming, leaving the city-state reliant on imports to feed its expanding population and turning to new technologies such as vertical farming and cell-grown meat. And with much of Singapore dominated by skyscrapers, it is cultivating fresh food on window ledges and rooftops of commercial and residential buildings in self-contained growing units.

But vertical farming as its name implies may be a bit misleading, which is why it also carries the designation of urban or indoor farming, or, what the chief executive of UK government-backed CHAP (Crop Health and Protection) prefers to call controlled-environment farming. As well as growing produce in stacked shelf-style units, it also takes the form of using redundant shipping containers known as 'cooltainers' and abandoned subway tunnels, employing the most-widely used hydroponics and aeroponics technologies – at least currently – without the need for soil and fields.

And it's not just space that's one of the primary factors driving the interest but also the advantage of being able to produce fresh produce like leafy greens year-round, so avoiding extreme weather events – an important element given the increasing concerns over global warming and the environmental impact of intense farming. And urban-farming methods don't use pesticides either.

Vertical farming is also applauded for using 90% less water – estimates do vary but are at least that level – than conventional techniques because it can be recycled and recirculated. The technology has also been touted as a potential means of cutting retailers' food waste, and, because the growing systems can be located nearer to the consumer, is claimed to potentially reduce the carbon footprint. It also opens the door to cultivating a broader range of crop varieties, many of which have died out due to commercial or viability reasons.

More importantly, perhaps, from a commercial perspective, the technology provides greater yields because the growers can control the nutrient inputs, which, it is claimed, in turn, provides fresher and better quality produce, as well as improved nutrition for the consumer. 

Evolving from niche markets

However, a major drawback for many vertical-farming operators revolves around energy use and cost because most of the systems employ LED lighting, although tech firms are investing in NPD and more efficient devices. There's also the aspect of raising the capital to fund the required technology and research and development, and to make it commercially viable and profitable. 

Vertical farming is also currently limited to fresh leafy vegetables, soft fruits and herbs, although, that said, it's not regarded by those in the industry as a method destined to replace arable farming. And new food choices such as tomatoes are slowly emerging. 

The intensifying interest in the cannabis market – for medicinal, and in some cases, recreational use – might just arguably be the pick-me up to inject more momentum into the vertical-farming sector, an area still difficult to quantify in terms of size because of the split between the companies cultivating the produce and those supplying the technologies, according to CHAP. But can urban farming become mainstream?

"I think it definitely will. I think it will go into niche markets to start with like the micro greens, leafy greens and then the higher-value foods, so there's definitely a market now for high-value nutrition foods coming through," Fraser Black, the CEO of CHAP, tells just-food.

CHAP, which is part of the UK's Agri-Tech strategy, and Innovate UK, a government-backed innovation agency, have teamed up to open a center called The Innovation Hub for Controlled Environment Agriculture (IHCEA), based in Dundee, Scotland. 

Black continues: "The consumer view of what they eat and how they eat it is definitely helping fuel this whole area. It's not going to be mainstream arable, it's not going to be cereals, but, as we drive down the price and improve varieties, it will become more mainstream. I think it's going to be a companion rather than a competitor to existing farming.

"A lot of the technology, we suspect, will start to be driven not by salads and leafy greens but by the cannabis boom that's happening in the States and in other places. A lot of the technology that will be used in that will transfer over into the consumable-food market as well. And clearly then driving down the cost.

"You have a combination of entrepreneurs, growers, investors, technologists, biologists, and physicists all working together to see how do we work this effectively and scale-up."

Venture-capital backing

Research from US-based MarketsandMarkets.com suggests the global vertical-farming sector could reach almost US$6bn in value over the next two years, from around $1.5bn in 2016.

There are a myriad of firms already involved around the globe, including in the US, Europe and Asia.

Infarm, based in Berlin, has drawn venture capital for its vertical-farming technology targeted at retail and foodservice channels. UK retailer Marks and Spencer recently installed systems from Infarm for fresh herbs – basil, mint, parsley, and coriander – in seven stores across London, joining other European retailers such as Edeka and Intermache using the company's technology.

Announcing the development last September, M&S said: "Each in-store farm unit uses 95% less water and 75% less fertilizer than traditional soil-based agriculture and is capable of producing the equivalent of 400 square meters of farmland, resulting in a more sustainable use of natural resources and ensuring zero-pesticide use." 

M&S declined to comment for this article but Paul Willgoss, director of food technology, said in September: "We operate as part of a complex global food-supply chain and want to understand the emerging technologies that could help provide more sustainable solutions, whilst also delivering fantastic products with exceptional taste, quality and freshness for our customers." 

Infarm is seeking to expand its own services across the whole food chain as innovation in the sector accelerates.

"We are sensitive to the fact that the Infarm approach to vertical farming is only one way to tackle the urgent agricultural and ecological challenges of our time," says Osnat Michaeli, co-founder and head of marketing. "Solving these challenges will require innovation and collaboration across the entire industry to generate a lasting impact. 
 
"Over the next several years we are building a farming-as-a-service model that will be capable of delivering the technology, processes and expertise to enable an entire ecosystem of partners – from distribution centres to food manufacturers, from schools to hospitals and beyond – to participate in making cities truly self-sufficient in their food production."

Agricool in Paris has also secured funding from investors, including Danone Manifesto Ventures, the investment arm of the French dairy giant. The company started out growing strawberries in an apartment building in the capital before switching to cooltainers, and is now also present in Dubai, another major food importer.

Guillaume Fourdinier, the founder and CEO of Agricool, agrees with others in the vertical-farming sector that it will take five years before the market becomes more mainstream. However, as an example of the growth potential, he tells just-food Agricool's systems are currently in five supermarkets in Paris, which will increase to 25 in the next three months.

Nevertheless, Fourdinier emphasises the financial cost of getting an urban-farming business going and the efforts that go into R&D, an area in which 50 of the company's 85 staff are engaged. Fourdinier says Agricool has raised EUR30m (US$33.2m) in funding and "we are only just starting".

"It's a lot of effort and money and investment to make it profitable," he says. "We are basically inventing a new industry. This is something that will change the next 100 years of agriculture but it will take time for sure."

"We think we will be able to show that it's really profitable to grow indoors"

In the UK, Saturn Bioponics, located in the city of Birmingham and setting up farms in the local greenbelt area, uses hydroponic technology to grow fruit and leafy salad vegetables such as pak choi, lettuce and strawberries, and also herbs. The company uses natural light, growing produce in greenhouses. It has been backed by Innovate UK through project financing and grants, and is also assisting Shockingly Fresh in Scotland. 

Saturn chief executive Alex Fisher says the company is engaged in projects not only in the UK, but also in France, Romania and Japan. He argues main stumbling block in getting vertical farming off the ground is finance because of the cost of technology and R&D, before a venture can get to the commercialisation stage and start delivering profits.

"We do see it going mainstream," Fisher tells just-food. "It's all about money in the end. It's been very much about de-risking it technically, proving it financially and then getting people to adopt it on a large scale. And that's been our journey over nearly ten years. Probably, you will see the market exploding on our end in about five years." 

Like Black at CHAP, Fisher says urban farming was never intended to compete with the well-established agrarian sector, which is much larger by comparison Agricool's Fourdinier points out the technology isn't suitable for crops such as cereals and potatoes, which tend to have a longer shelf-life, particularly as the sector is geared toward providing the freshest produce in closer proximity to the consumer.

Fisher adds when asked to quantify the size of the market: "You are talking many tens of billions or even hundreds of billions of dollars per annum in farm-gate crop values. Your lettuce, strawberries, herbs – it's huge – obviously that's a drop in the ocean for agriculture overall but it's still very significant values. As we move into other areas that number will expand."

Major breakthrough in five years

Saturn is also exploring aromatic products, botanical-type products, brassica and other soft fruits.

Black says the main driver behind vertical farming is commercial, although Agricool's Fourdinier tags on the environmental aspect, too. Both believe China and India will embrace the technology to feed their growing populations, especially with vast numbers relocating to the big cities from rural areas. And, with the mistrust among Chinese consumers over the food they eat, greens and herbs grown in indoor and controlled environments might be one solution to quell concerns over pollution, adds Fourdinier. 

"I think in the next five years you are going to see some major breakthroughs. You've already got big companies investing in this. You've also got an investment community eager to get involved," says Black. "There's huge interest in making this work and being able to have this combination of what is fresh produce 365 days a year. It has to be in a fashion that is cost-effective and provides value to the consumer, and we are definitely heading in that direction.

"You are going to see the US grow, partly because of the growth in cannabis and the use of medicinal and recreational cannabis. I think you will see the rest of the world follow quickly behind it because of the convenience factor."

Looking at the UK's vertical-farming market, Saturn's Fisher says it's a hard nut to crack when farmers generally in the country are struggling. If they are to venture into the sector, the Government needs to improve access by offering grants or other incentives because farmers are already highly leveraged with debt to take on the extra capital.

"If what you are looking for is for the farmer to progress you need to take the risk out of the adoption of new technologies. That's a huge thing," he says. "Access to finance in general is very difficult for farmers. So it's very hard for them to borrow money for new tech and stuff like that."

Shockingly Fresh is developing five vertical-farming sites, one in Scotland and four in England, using technology from Saturn. Fisher is also part of the company's team.

Garth Bryans, the director at Shockingly Fresh, says the sector needs to compete on price per kilogram with traditional farming to bring in the investment for the industry to expand and suggests the UK government should offer some form of tax incentives for large-scale systems to attract capital.

He says there are benefits, too, in terms of imports with Brexit on the horizon.
 
"We should note that with Brexit approaching, vertical farming significantly increases the UK season and will reduce reliance on imported leafy veg from mainland Europe in the early spring and late summer 'shoulder months'," he tells just-food. "If tariffs come in, this could make vertical farms even more compelling.

"The UK alone imports over GBP1bn ($1.3bn) of green leafy veg per year, providing a very significant market for systems that can compete with traditional crops on price whilst providing a much better quality crop closer to the point of supply."  

More broadly, Fourdinier highlights the benefits to the consumer in terms of the nutritional content of foods grown in a controlled environment in close proximity, and says they need educating to fully understand the advantages.

He adds, for example, that 50% of the vitamins in fruit are lost after five days storage, arguing vertical farming is all about being "fresher, the nutritional value and taste, and also consumers know where their food is coming from".

While the market is limited in terms of product selection, Fourdinier says it's natural to start off with the "easy ones" as other vegetables tend to be more complex and the nascent industry would need to develop the appropriate technologies. However, he sees tomatoes, peppers and courgettes coming through.

"We have to invent a lot of new technologies to make it profitable and you have to be productive to become mass market," Fourdinier explains. "It's the same as electric cars. We think we will be able to show that it's really profitable to grow indoors and that you get more sustainable food by doing so in large cities."

Vertical Farming Startup Expands Through New Retail Deals With Whole Foods, Safeway

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Vertical farming startup Plenty is ramping up its retail distribution through two new deals with Whole Foods Market and Safeway.

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South San Francisco, CA

By Katie Burke  – Staff Reporter, San Francisco Business Times

A South San Francisco farming startup is quickly growing its retail roots after landing new distribution deals with two of the area's largest grocers.

Vertical agriculture company Plenty will soon stock the produce shelves at a handful of Whole Foods Market and Safeway locations across the Bay Area to mark the beginning of what the startup is hoping will be a widespread push into new retailers and restaurants. Plenty's vegetables first began selling in retail outlets last year and are now available through Good Eggs, Berkeley Bowl, Bi-Rite Market and the robotic burger restaurant, Creator.

Plenty grows its produce hydroponically, meaning it feeds the plant without having it rooted in soil. By cutting water consumption, shortening the supply chain and shrinking the amount of space needed to grow produce, Plenty will be able to deliver more produce at a faster rate, Plenty CEO Matt Barnard previously told the San Francisco Business Times.

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Matt Barnard, CEO and CoFounder, Plenty Inc.

Since it was founded in 2013, Plenty has raised more than $400 million, $175 million of which was raised as part of a Series C round the company closed last June. The round pushed the company's valuation to its current $1.05 billion.

The latest infusion of capital has helped fund the company's expansion to Los Angeles, where it's in the process of opening a new 95,000-square-foot farm in Compton. The new facility is expected to begin supplying produce like bok choy, mizuna, fennel, and kale to retail partners by the end of this year.

The company's South San Francisco farm, which launched last summer, is on track to hit full capacity before the end of the year. At that point, it will be able to supply more than 100 grocery partners throughout the Bay Area. Plenty also operates a test farm in Wyoming, where it experiments with different seeds and varietals.

Plenty is ultimately aiming to have as many as 500 vertical farms stationed in highly populated, urban areas around the world.

"We are able to deliver a product that’s both better than and at a price that is less than anything that’s in the market," Barnard previously said. "You are going to see us on more and more shelves. You going to be able to find us, have us delivered to your home. We want our product in more people’s hands and mouths."

Your Grocery Store Could Soon Have A Farm Inside It

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Marnie Shure

December 16, 2019

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Plants grown by Verticrop, a UK-based vertical farm, in 2011.

Photo: Phil Clarke Hill/In Pictures Ltd. (Getty Images)

Just before Thanksgiving, grocery chain Kroger launched an initiative in partnership with Infarm, a German startup that specializes in “modular vertical farms,” to install hydroponic farms right inside two of their Seattle-area stores. Even though it’s been less than a month since the rollout, CityLab reports, Kroger is already declaring the project a success and looking to expand it to other locations.

Vertical farming is a space- and energy-efficient way of growing produce such as lettuce, herbs, and peas right inside the grocery stores where customers shop. According to CityLab, items are sold in bunches, “roots and all,” and shoppers have taken to these tiny farms so quickly that sometimes the produce sells out quicker than new produce can mature.

“For the bulk of the last century, food has been produced far from where it is consumed, generating a supply chain that is environmentally unsustainable,” said Infarm CEO Osnat Michaeli. “Our modular farms offer the potential of turning the supply chain on its head by building the world’s first global farming network.”

Kroger, for its part, touts the program as a way for shoppers to make informed food choices. “Customers today want transparency; they want to know exactly where their product is from, the provenance where it was grown,” said Suzy Monford, vice president of fresh foods at Kroger Group. This is Infarm’s first time collaborating with a U.S. grocery chain to bring customers these in-store hydroponic farms.

Kroger plans to expand vertical farming to 13 more of its locations (all in Washington and Oregon) by April 2020.

Denmark: Grown And Harvested In Stores Now In Copenhagen

Starting Nov. 21st fresh Infarm produce will be available to Danish consumers for the first time at Copenhagen’s Irma Østerport (Oslo Pl. 2, 2100 København, Denmark). Local shoppers (and perhaps even local chefs) will be able to choose from a selection of living Italian Basil, Greek Basil, Parsley, and Coriander Confetti, grown and harvested right in the store.

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This is the beginning of a new partnership between Infarm and the Danish retailer Irma. Infarm is planning to bring their fresh produce to more Irma locations across Sjælland in the next few months.

Infarm also recently struck a deal with supermarket chain Kroger do put similar cultivations inside their Seattle-area stores.

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Infarm
Glogauerstr. 6 10999 Berlin
+49 30 58846540
infarm.de

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Publication date: Fri 22 Nov 2019

Walmart To Add 500 Stores In China

BY LIAM O’CALLAGHAN

26th November 2019, Hong Kong

US retailer set to double its presence in China over the next five to seven years

Walmart has announced plans to open 500 new stores in China in the next five to seven years, doubling its store count.

According to a CNN report, groceries and online shopping are the key drivers of this expansion. The company also revealed it will remodel over 200 of its Chinese stores, with features such as self-service cash registers, and facial recognition payment set to be added.

The new stores are expected to include a mix of regular stores, supercentres, and depots for online shoppers.

James Ku, a senior vice president with Walmart China, told CNN the company plans to service its customers through multiple outlets.

“Walmart is leveraging multi-format strategies to bring customers freshness, value, and convenience," said Ku.

"We will continue to collaborate with partners and policymakers in China to accelerate our expansion.”

In addition to the 433 stores it currently has in China, Walmart’s ‘multi-format’ approach includes a stake in Chinese e-retailer JD.com.

In 2016 Walmart sold its Chinese online grocery division, Yihaodian, to JD.com in exchange for shares. JD.com now hosts Walmart’s products on its online platform.

Growth of Walmart In The US

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So this nationwide chain store all only got underway in 1962? That is quite surprising. That means most Americans had probably not heard of Walmart in the early 70s, while by the late 80s, most Americans would have one in their town.

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