Posts Tagged “indoor farming”
MOREHEAD, Ky. — AppHarvest, Inc. (NASDAQ: APPH, APPHW), a sustainable food company, public benefit corporation and Certified B Corp building some of the world’s largest high-tech indoor farms to grow affordable, nutritious fruits and vegetables at scale while providing good jobs in Appalachia, today announced it has started commercial shipments from its first harvest of tomatoes at its new 60-acre high-tech indoor farm in Richmond, Ky. This marks the first time ever that all facilities in the AppHarvest four-farm network are shipping to top national grocery store chains, restaurants and foodservice outlets under a variety of brands for Mastronardi Produce.
The opening of AppHarvest Richmond last December delivered on the company’s commitment to quadruple the number of farms operating in its network by the end of 2022, in what the company believes is the largest simultaneous build out of controlled environment agriculture (CEA) infrastructure in U.S. history. With this milestone, the company is moving from a focus on construction and development to the next phase of the business focused on operations. On January 3, 2023, AppHarvest named CEA industry veteran and AppHarvest Board Member Tony Martin as Chief Operating Officer to leverage his extensive background in CEA. Martin is working to optimize production, revenue and costs across the AppHarvest four-farm network totaling 165 acres under glass.
AppHarvest Richmond
AppHarvest Richmond, the 60-acre high-tech indoor farm growing tomatoes in Richmond, Ky., is harvesting and shipping from its first growing season of Campari and Maranice varieties of “Tomatoes on the Vine.” Opening in a two-phased approach, the second 30-acres in Richmond is expected to be planted later in 2023. With AppHarvest Morehead, the company expects to grow nearly 1.5 million tomato plants across the combined 120 acres.
AppHarvest Berea
Located in Berea, Ky., this 15-acre salad greens farm is believed to be the world’s largest high-tech indoor farm for autonomously harvested salad greens featuring a “touchless growing system.” AppHarvest Berea is designed to grow about 35 million lettuce plants at a time and is a supplier of the “Queen of Greens®” washed-and-ready-to-eat salad greens. On December 27, 2022, AppHarvest announced the completion of a $127 million sale-leaseback of the Berea farm to Mastronardi Berea LLC, a joint venture between Mastronardi Produce and COFRA Holding. Mastronardi Produce is AppHarvest’s exclusive marketing and distribution partner.
AppHarvest Somerset
The 30-acre high-tech indoor farm in Somerset, Ky., is shipping strawberries under the “WOW® Berries” brand for AppHarvest customer, Mastronardi Produce. AppHarvest Somerset is designed to grow nearly one million strawberry plants at a time, which are expected to produce for about eight months of the year. The crop is expected to alternate seasonally with long English cucumbers. In advance of the seasonal summer refresh for strawberries, the Somerset farm is expected to plant multiple acres of cucumbers to kick off its initial cucumber crop.
AppHarvest Morehead
AppHarvest Morehead, the 60-acre flagship farm in Morehead, Ky., kicked off its third season of harvesting ahead of schedule and is growing beefsteak tomatoes, Tomatoes on the Vine and snacking tomatoes. The Morehead farm has further diversified its crop set adding new varietals of premium snacking tomatoes sold under the Sunset brand as “Flavor Bombs®” and “Sugar Bombs®.”
About AppHarvest
AppHarvest is a sustainable food company in Appalachia developing and operating some of the world’s largest hightech indoor farms with robotics and artificial intelligence to build a reliable, climate-resilient food system. AppHarvest’s farms are designed to grow produce using sunshine, rainwater and up to 90% less water than openfield growing, all while producing yields up to 30 times that of traditional agriculture and preventing pollution from agricultural runoff. AppHarvest currently operates its 60-acre flagship farm in Morehead, Ky., producing tomatoes, a 15-acre indoor farm for salad greens in Berea, Ky., a 30-acre farm for strawberries and cucumbers in Somerset, Ky., and a 60-acre farm in Richmond, Ky., for tomatoes. The four-farm network consists of 165 acres under glass. For more information, visit https://www.appharvest.com.
By Shenandoah Growers
ROCKINGHAM, Va. — Shenandoah Growers, Inc. (SGI), the leading grower and marketer of certified organic fresh herbs for retail in the U.S., announces the attainment of another milestone in the company’s drive to fundamentally change the way highly perishable produce is grown and distributed. Leveraging a proprietary combination of automated greenhouses and indoor LED vertical grow rooms to produce over 30 million certified organic plants per year, SGI brings a third indoor growing facility online. The new facility, located in Texas, is the latest component of SGI’s innovative hub-and-spoke farming and distribution system, and only the most recent step in the company’s three-year, multi-million-dollar nationwide expansion of indoor farming.
The company’s latest indoor growing facility takes its place in a system that is quickly scalable for market growth, allowing Shenandoah Growers to locally deliver certified organic superior flavor and shelf life at a fraction of the capital cost of other indoor farms.
“This indoor farm, and the two others in our system, are critical elements of how Shenandoah Growers is transforming the way perishable produce is grown and distributed,” said Timothy Heydon, CEO of Shenandoah Growers. “Shenandoah Growers focuses continually on innovation. With the integration of our modular indoor growing technology into our existing national footprint, we can grow amazing certified organic produce that delivers fresh flavor to consumers in a sustainable way, minimizing inputs of water, bio-media, land resources, and food miles. We are proud to be a part of transforming agriculture production and distribution for the future.”
Shenandoah Gowers’ Rockingham, Virginia farm complex serves as the eastern hub of a nationwide growing system. With a farming and supply chain platform spanning the country, the company’s unique indoor farms cover the Mid-Atlantic, Midwest and South Central markets. Shenandoah Growers continues the expansion of its farms, greenhouses and the implementation of an indoor farming hub and spoke system on the West Coast, with completion expected in 2018.
About Shenandoah Growers
Founded over 26 years ago and headquartered in Rockingham Virginia, Shenandoah Growers is a leading grower and marketer of fresh organic culinary herbs in the United States. The company’s mission is to bring fresh healthy flavor to food. Customer-driven with an expertise and passion for fresh flavor, the company has over 1,200 associates working across a nationally integrated platform of farms, production facilities and logistics operating in 11 states.
For more information, visit www.FreshHerbs.com