Once it’s up and running, the new vertical farm at the Waikato Innovation Park in Hamilton will produce about 4000 bags of leafy green vegetables a day for customers throughout the upper North Island – in about half the time it would take to grow them outdoors.
Built by new company Greengrower, the farm has been bankrolled by a group of investors from Waikato and elsewhere around New Zealand with a background in agribusiness and technology businesses.
Greengrower chief executive Tom Schuyt says they decided to create a vertical farming business in NZ after observing the challenges traditional growers are facing around supplying the domestic market.
Having a vertical farm offers resilience and alternatives for a market that has been regularly hit with supply issues due to weather events.
He says it will complement rather than compete with outdoor growers.
“We set up the business to try and counter-balance some of the challenges traditional growers face and work with them to be able to supply all year round and fill the supply gap that exists because of those challenges.”
The operation is based on overseas vertical farming methods and designs that have been adapted for NZ.
The farm’s nursery has begun growing greens with the aim of increasing production by mid-December and being in a steady production state by the end of the year.
Construction workers are putting the final touches to the farm that, when finished, will hold three growing tunnels.
These tunnels are the vertical farming equivalent of a production chain, growing a mix of lettuce, spinach, rocket and kale as well as herbs and microgreens.
Plugs of a peat soil solution are seeded using automation and grown in a nursery before being automatically transported to one of the tunnels where they are grown to maturity.
“They are fed nutrients and light and look after the environment the plants are growing in and we’re able to control the way that process happens, but it’s a very natural process,” Schuyt says.
The older plants are also given time in the dark to simulate night and give them a chance to “rest” from the light.
LED lighting is used to simulate sunlight and each tunnel has a hydroponic irrigation system to ensure the plants receive the appropriate amount of water. Temperature and humidity levels are kept constant.
The system runs on a combination of observation by staff agronomists and sensors that monitor the plants’ light and water intake, humidity and growth.
“We run a circular system so all of the water that the plants don’t absorb, we’re able to capture, re-treat and re-use. The water that the plants use is limited to the amount they need to grow,” Schuyt says.
It means Greengrower uses about 1% of the water a conventional outdoor farm would use, he says.
“We’re able to optimise the plant’s growth through its process. We’re able to optimise the amount of day, the intensity of the day in terms of the lights and the weather we’re able to create in the room in terms of the temperature and the humidity.”
As a result, the plants grow twice as fast as they would under outdoor farming. What would take 21 days to mature in the field will be ready for harvest in 10-14 days.
The system needs little fertiliser and is spray-free and the produce can be eaten without the need for washing. The farm has the flexibility to change what is grown depending on customer demand, he says.
The operation requires a lot of power and to that end, Greengrower has an agreement with an energy provider to provide it with net carbon-zero-sourced electricity, meaning all of the electricity is sustainably sourced.
“We’re very focused on our sustainability credentials and it’s important to us that it happens all of the way through our raw material supply.”
Schuyt says the produce will be cost competitive with traditional farmed products.
The vertical nature of the farming also means it is able to optimise its environment more efficiently when it comes to growing compared to a greenhouse, he says.
The plants are harvested and bagged onsite in a shelf-ready product in a room at the back of the facility.
Schuyt says the warehouse also has enough capacity to expand production if needed.
He says Greengrower is in ongoing discussions with retail outlets and the food service industry around the upper North Island regarding where the product will be sold or served to the public.
Schuyt says the company is working with a local partner that takes the leftover peat soil for composting and turns it into a new product rather than disposes of it as green waste.
“When I look at what we’re trying to do, its to show that this is a viable alternative way of growing which supports and supplements the existing industry. The growth from there will be driven off the supply gap that may or may not continue to exist.”
Greengrower will have an official opening early in the New Year.
