Ocado makes £17m bet on vertical farming
Ocado is committing £17m into two acquisitions to make it a global leader in the newly emerging vertical farming industry.
Vertical farming involves the production of food in indoor facilities where crops are grown on a series of levels in a precisely-controlled environment. Ocado said there a “clear sustainability advantages” of vertical farming, including low wastage, very low water use, minimal land use and no pesticides.
The extreme density of vertical farms allows them to be placed much closer to customers, potentially co-located next to our partners’ fulfilment centres, supermarkets and other locations near population centres.
Tim Steiner, Ocado’s CEO, said: “We believe that our investments today in vertical farming will allow us to address fundamental consumer concerns on freshness and sustainability and build on new technologies that will revolutionise the way customers access fresh produce. Our hope ultimately is to co-locate vertical farms within or next to our CFCs and Ocado Zoom’s micro-fulfilment centres so that we can offer the very freshest and most sustainable produce that could be delivered to a customer’s kitchen within an hour of it being picked”.
Source: The Grocer


