World's Largest Vertical Strawberry Farm Opens
upstart writes:
World's largest vertical strawberry farm opens in Jersey City:
Damn, that's sweet: Controlled environment agriculture company Oishii has opened the world's largest vertical strawberry farm at the old Anheuser-Busch factory in Jersey City, growing strawberries five rows deep in the retrofitted 74,000-square-foot facility.
The expanded growing capacity will allow the company to decrease the sticker shock on its berries, which until May 18 sold for $50 per 11-pack of medium berries at high-end grocery stores like Van Hook Cheese & Grocery in Jersey City and Montclair. As of May 19, the 11-pack price has dropped to $20, with six-berry trays at $11 and three-berry trays at $6 also available.
Making the berries more affordable was "the whole purpose" of expanding operations and focusing on efficiencies, Oishii co-founder and CEO Hiroki Koga said.
[...] "Now, it's just a matter of how quickly can we deploy these farms across the world," said Koga.
[...] The new facility won't fulfill demand for Oishii's products, and Koga said both New York metro-area farms and farms in other cities are coming down the pike. New produce is on its way, too, specifically tomatoes and melons.
Do you think this scales well and can eventually supply produce at a reasonable price, or will this always serve the niche $2/berry crowd?
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