A SCOTTISH start-up plans to build dozens of indoor vertical farms, which it claims can grow up to five times the amount of greens as traditional farm, across the UK.
Edinburgh-based Shockingly Fresh is currently developing five sites countrywide to introduce low cost naturally-lit vertical farms using hydroponic towers to grow multiple crop cycles of leafy veg such as salads and herbs.
The firm said it believes the increased yields from its farms will help British growers boost crop production and reduce the UK’s reliance on costly off-season imports from Europe.
It also said the enclosed environment will mean less pesticides and cleaner crops.
READ MORE: Scottish vertical farming pioneer's £5.4m backing to fund 120 jobs
The company has secured rights to one site in Scotland and four in England - covering a total of 50 hectares - with a site in Worcestershire awaiting full planning consent.
The firm has launched an investor seed round to kick start its expansion to more than 40 sites countrywide over the next five years.
Shockingly Fresh has teamed up with technology providers Saturn Bioponics and specialist salad growers ValeFresco to roll out the plans.
READ MORE: ‘Vertical’ farming on the way up to counter climate change threat
Garth Bryans, of Shockingly Fresh, said: “We selected Saturn’s technology because their set-up requires far less up-front capital than a fully-enclosed vertical farm, yet delivers most of the benefits which are already driving the high demand for hydroponically-produced crops.
“This makes it much easier to get projects off the ground.
“A fully enclosed farm can achieve a higher annual yield, but when you add in additional lighting and heating costs as well as the high capex, their typical costs per kg are higher than a naturally lit set up can achieve.”
He added: “We have identified a significant market - particularly around the early and late season ‘shoulder months’ - which is currently filled by imported crops from Europe.
“We believe our sites will enable British growers to compete on a level field.”
Over the last three years ValeFresco and Birmingham-based Saturn have successfully grown vertical crops of pak choi, lettuce and herbs for a range of customers – with positive results.
“With pak choi we saw a three to four-fold increase in yields per crop cycle, with a third more cycles per year, giving an overall five-fold increase in annual yield.” said Saturn Bioponics founder Alex Fisher.
“The crops are cleaner, the season is longer, there is less disease and pest risk and they are easy to harvest.
“Consumers are well-accustomed to strawberries grown under cover and this is a natural next step,” Mr Fisher added.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel