Compare Different Types of Container Farms With Agritecture Designer's New Templates
Editor’s Note: This article is the second part in a series on container farming with Agritecture Designer. You can read the first article here.
Written by: Sarah Jordan
April 6, 2023
With Agritecture Designer, our data-backed farm-planning platform, you can plan the farm of your dreams and get started on your controlled environment agriculture (CEA) journey. Our software features templates from equipment providers who are a part of the Agritecture Partner Network. Through our Partner Network, you can get quotes and discounts, find reliable financing for your urban farming projects, view our partners’ market history, and book introductory calls with our Client Success Manager, Luc Lalire.
If you’re looking to open a container farm, you can choose to integrate containers from our partners, including LettUs Grow, Urban Crop Solutions, HRVST, and ZipGrow. The financials for each container type are incorporated into the financial modeling algorithm for Agritecture Designer, so you know that you’re getting the most accurate estimate possible.
To compare your different options for container farming templates, we built four different farm models in Agritecture Designer, each utilizing a different partner’s container template. Each farm model was located in Middleburg, Virginia, on a 10,000 sq. ft. land plot with 5 containers. In each scenario, the owner acted as the head grower with an intermediate level of experience, the farm was funded through equity, and the farm laborers were paid $15 an hour.
Each farm also grew a different crop since our library of crops includes over 80 varieties of different plants. With this kind of variety, you can build many different types of farms with different features and configurations.
Our first farm scenario was a spearmint facility with containers from ZipGrow. With this container farm, you could expect to bring in around $537,189 from your harvest. The farm could be paid back in 4.39 years. The CapEx is just under a million dollars, and the OpEx would be around a quarter of a million dollars each year.
Next, we modeled a mustard microgreens farm using HRVST containers. This farm had a higher CapEx at around $1.6M and an OpEx of $391,288, slightly higher than the spearmint farm. It also had a significantly higher maximum annual revenue of $867,860. This revenue is higher because of the higher price point that mustard microgreens can be sold for. The payback period was slightly lower than the spearmint farm.
The third farm model used containers from Urban Crop Solutions growing Genovese basil. The CapEx for this farm is similar to the value for the mustard microgreen farm, but slightly lower at $1.2 million.
The OpEx is slightly higher than both previous farms, but the maximum annual revenue can make up for that at $662,164. The payback period is also slightly longer than that of the previous two models, but is quite reasonable at just over 6 years.
The last farm model we conducted was comprised of containers from LettUs Grow and grows pea shoots. This farm boasts the lowest CapEx and OpEx numbers at $944,675 and $216,770 respectively. With a maximum annual revenue of $589,230, it makes slightly more money each year than the first farm growing spearmint. The pea shoot farm also had the lowest payback period at 3.39 years.
Agritecture Designer is a great tool for potential farm owners or operators to get an idea of the money it might cost to open and operate their facilities. By playing around with inputs, such as location, staff wages, and crops, you can maximize profit while minimizing capital and operational expenses. Agritecture Designer allows you the freedom to explore your options before committing any capital to begin your project. It’s important to know before you grow, so our software is the perfect tool to get you started on your journey.
Lead photo: Urban Crop Solutions’s container farms are a great option for a newbie to vertical farming. Credit: Urban Crop Solutions.