Sokovo has signed an agreement with Dubai Industrial City, one of the region’s largest manufacturing and logistics hub, to establish a vertical farm that will produce thousands of tonnes of leafy greens, fruits and vegetables per year.
The indoor farm has a plot size of more than 100,000 sq. ft., with a total built-up area covering more than 25,000 sq. ft. Sokovo will grow fresh kale, spinach, lettuce, tomatoes, strawberries and melons, supplying hundreds of hypermarkets, hotels and top chefs across the country. The industry is attracting and nurturing talents that are bolstering the UAE’s innovation-driven food security strategy as vertical farming booms nationwide.
The environmentally friendly hydroponic facility will be built with a retractable sunroof to maximize natural light and reduce electricity consumption. Water will be responsibly used to provide the necessary nutrients to the crops and maintain quality and freshness.
State-of-the-art processing and sorting equipment will sanitize and pack the produce, creating a fast and efficient farm-to-fork delivery system. Rotating seven-metre-tall towers will also be used to make sure that all the crops get equal exposure to natural sunlight which helps maximize freshness of the produce and maintain efficiency across a large area. The factory will be designed with high flexibility and agility to match market demand while delivering the highest levels of product quality and safety.
“Growing melons, tomatoes, strawberries and kale in an arid climate with limited water and arable land should be impossible, but the UAE’s commitment to innovation-driven food security shows anything is possible,” said Saud Abu Al-Shawareb, managing director of Dubai Industrial City. “Our agreement with Sokovo to build a world-class vertical farm marks an exciting chapter in the future of food production, and we are delighted to welcome them to our business district.”
Highlighting the importance of innovation-driven food security and the opportunities in the region, Harsh Gurbani, manager, Sokovo, added: “We look forward to producing pesticide free fruits and vegetables which would be grown and sold only in the UAE. This would also contribute towards the economy of the country and enable us to grow fresh products 365 days of the year and 24 hours of the day.”
Covering more than 550 million sq. ft., Dubai Industrial City is designed around a world-class masterplan that divides the massive business district into strategic sector-focused zones. The food and beverage site covers a total land area of 23.5 million sq. ft. and is home to more than 60 food and beverage manufacturers including Barakat, Patchi, Almarai Group, Barakah Dates Factory and Lifco. There are also 11 food production factories under construction. ●
Alquimi Renewables, LLC and Island Growers Caribbean (IGC) are implementing a unique business model to radically improve and protect how fresh produce is grown in the Caribbean. The model focuses on producing imported ‘cold weather’ crops in proprietary, climate smart hydroponic greenhouse farms.
IGC intends to improve food quality, use organic farming practices, and ensure a consistent supply of produce to regional markets throughout the year by the use of these newly developed, 100 percent climate resilient greenhouse systems.
Alquimi and its strategic engineering and manufacturing partner, Sprung Structures Ltd., developed the highly specialized greenhouse system – IAT/Sprung Climate Smart Greenhouse – to support IGC farming projects throughout the Caribbean and other island states affected by severe climate threats.
“Our greenhouse system represents the new standard in climate resilience, which is critical to operating and ensuring commercial farm operations in regions constantly threatened by cyclonic wind events and flooding. These are the strongest greenhouse systems in the world – and the only system that is engineer-certified to 175 mph sustained wind loads and 202 mph gusts, as well as being earthquake, flood and pestilent resistant. We can now grow food during a major hurricane event,” said Ralph Birkhoff, co-founder and CCO of IGC.
Food sustainability in the Caribbean has been a hot topic for years. While many islands in the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) have varying degrees of agricultural production, hurricanes, floods and other natural disasters continue to threaten their sustainability and reliable production of affordable fresh produce. Over the past few months, as COVID-19 has shifted the global landscape, the cost of agricultural produce in the Caribbean has become increasingly unstable.
Inside these greenhouses, IGC employs a customized, sub-tropical Shallow Aggregate Ebb-and-Flow (SAEF) hydroponic system, which delivers the highest potential crop yields, while using a fraction of the energy and water required by other hydroponic systems. “Energy costs are extremely high in most Caribbean islands, and fresh water is always a limited resource, so our farms employ low energy production systems and advanced water control systems to reduce our overall cost of production,” noted Birkhoff. “As we expand our farms, we will also integrate solar energy generation to reduce operational cost.” The totally integrated greenhouse systems are naturally aspirated, requiring no evaporative cooling or HVAC systems thus saving energy costs, and reducing the risk of humidity related plant damage.
“Low tech greenhouses and protected agriculture have been used for decades in the Caribbean, but tropical storms and hurricanes have destroyed all former versions and very few of them were rebuilt,” added Birkhoff. “We’re introducing state-of-the-art agtech to the region for the first time to provide a truly sustainable food production solution.”
Alquimi designed its integrated greenhouse systems specifically for the Caribbean region, taking into account the inherent risk factors.
IGC intends to build a farm on every island in the Caribbean region over the next several years. It is seeking
to form partnerships with local landowners, farmers, and/or off-takers, and plans to operate independently in each jurisdiction. By the end of 2021, IGC expects to have four farms operating in the following islands: Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Antigua and Barbuda, and Saint Lucia. It is also developing a dedicated resort farm project in Anguilla, as well as third-party projects in Puerto Rico and Belize using the IAT technologies.
Alquimi recently formalized a major strategic investment partnership that will allow it to implement an aggressive expansion strategy across the Caribbean islands. Under the new Berrycove Limited investment fund established in Trinidad and Tobago, Alquimi and IGC will start immediately with the first phase buildout of the largest commercial greenhouse farm in the region on a 15-acre site at Cove Estate, Tobago.
The new Tobago farm aims to produce 45,000 pounds of various berry fruits including strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and blackberries, in addition to a selection of organic greens for fresh local supply and potential export to neighbouring markets on a monthly basis. Berrycove intends to expand the farm up to 15 acres, and to add a processing plant to prepare frozen berries for export throughout the region.
“Our mission is to introduce a higher level of protected agriculture technologies designed specifically for the Caribbean region to overcome the multiple risks of farming in this part of the world and [to] start building national food security, reduce food imports and offer a much higher quality of fresh produce,” stated Birkhoff. ●
Alquimi designed its integrated greenhouse systems specifically for the Caribbean region.
Vegpro International, which produces Fresh Attitude brand lettuce, sold at over 2,500 retail stores in Canada, announced a $55 million investment for the construction of its first greenhouse complex, as well as packing lines within the complex, in Sherrington, Montérégie, Quebec.
Covering four hectares (10 acres), this greenhouse complex will allow the company to produce lettuce year-round in Quebec, and therefore remain close to Quebec consumers even during the coldest months. The company expects to open the first greenhouse during the winter of 2022, with sales starting soon thereafter. This project will enable the production of over 100,000 pounds (45,000 kg) of lettuce per week.
“With this investment, Vegpro will reduce its environmental footprint on different levels: less transportation of lettuce from our winter production site in Florida for products destined for Eastern Canada, a reduced use of water and fossil energy, as well as the elimination of pesticides,” said Gerry Van Winden, president and chief executive officer of Vegpro International. “We make every effort to reduce the repercussions our activities have on the environment, and the construction of a greenhouse complex is another gesture that demonstrates our desire to be an environmentally responsible company.”
The project will also allow Vegpro to bring to market a new range of ‘teens’-type lettuces, which are larger and crispier than baby lettuce. “This Canadian-developed technology can be used not only at Vegpro’s packing site in Sherrington, Quebec, but also at the Coldstream site in British Columbia. This project will make Canada a world leader in teen lettuce farming,” added Luc Prévost, executive vice-president of sales and marketing at Vegpro International.
According to the company, the production system retained for this project will be compatible with a sustainable agriculture approach. Among its main attributes, it provides for the elimination of pesticides and the limited use of water and growth substrates, as well as their recycling. Water consumption will be reduced by 90 percent in comparison to field production. A minimal use of fossil energy is also planned, thanks to the use of LED lighting and geothermal energy. The system optimizes the use of water, light, space and nutrients, making it a modern, viable and sustainable method of farming.
For Vegpro, this is the first phase of this unique project in the country. Two years after Phase 1 goes into service, another greenhouse with the same dimensions will double the production area. The total investment will then reach over $100 million. ●
LLC TK TyumenAgro will build the fourth stage of a greenhouse complex, near the existing plants in the village of Narimanov, Tyumensky district. The investment project was accepted for support by the Investment Agency of the Tyumen Region fund following an expert council held on August 3, reports IA Svetych with reference to the Department of Investment Policy and State Support of Entrepreneurship of the Tyumen Region.
The project involves the construction of a modern greenhouse with an area of 20 hectares for the year-round production of fresh tomatoes and cherry tomatoes in the amount of about nine thousand tons per year. Construction will begin this fall and will be completed in early 2023. The new production facility will employ 300 jobs.
“We have already passed three stages of construction and are proposing the fourth stage in the vicinity of the existing plant. In the fourth stage, we are planning more intense illumination. Now we practice from 120 to 165 watts, on the fourth stage there will be 200 watts in order to increase the yield and intensity of production,”said
Alexey Kremlev, director of TK TyumenAgro LLC.
The Investment Agency of the Tyumen Region Fund will provide the project with organizational support and information support.
The construction of the fourth stage is supported by the government of the Tyumen region in terms of leasing a land plot without tendering, construction of agricultural facilities, including external supply networks with a length of more than 2,000 metres and connection to gas supply networks.
The goal of the project is to provide the population of the Tyumen region and adjacent regions with fresh vegetables during the off-season period, and to squeeze out low-quality imported products from the market. In the period from 2013 to 2021, TK TyumenAgro LLC implemented three stages of construction of a greenhouse complex for growing tomatoes, cucumbers and cherry tomatoes.
Today the volume of vegetable production is about 26,000 tons per year. The total area of greenhouses, taking into account the previously implemented three stages of construction, is 33 hectares. The company employs about 600 people. The products of LLC TK TyumenAgro are supplied to the markets of the Ural and Siberian federal districts. ●
The fourth stage of the greenhouse complex will be built for the year-round production of fresh tomatoes and cherry tomatoes.
