The £25m project – overseen by food and drink construction specialists Clegg Food Projects – utilises LED-based lighting to produce crops across four acres of land, with the ability to produce 250 times more leafy greens than conventional farming.
Tristan Fischer, chief executive of Fischer Farms, said: “After months of hard work by the team, it's fantastic to see our new farm in production. The state-of-the-art facility has been completed to the highest spec, and is at the cutting edge of vertical farming technology, enabling us to provide customers with the very best, sustainably grown fresh produce.”
Year-round crops
Fischer Farms planned on operating the site 365 days a year using sustainable energy sources, leveraging the producer’s expertise in agri-tech and renewable energy.
Clegg Food Projects business development manager Oliver Jenkins added: “Vertical farming is transforming the agriculture industry and this facility proves it is a viable solution for supplying fresh produce in a controlled growing environment all year round. With growing concerns over climate change as well as land and labour shortages, innovative solutions such as this are very welcome.
“This has been a fantastic project to be involved with on many levels. As with any technology-focused facility, the team needed to be flexible – and where possible adjust the design and construction works to meet the needs of the specialist process equipment. In addition, they also undertook an extensive building services and utilities installation in order to supply the complex growing and harvesting systems.
Investment in vertical farms
Vertical farm projects have been attracting millions of pounds of investment in recent years, with the likes of Vertical Future and GrowUp Farms attracting more than £120m of funding last year alone.
The design of a typical vertical farms makes them easy to slot into any urban environment, or even into an existing factory. For manufacturers, this can greatly reduce food miles and offer access to produce throughout the year without the fear of crops being damaged by adverse weather.
Liverpool-based vertical farming expert Farm Urban has even used the business model as the basis of an educational video game to help school children learn about careers in the food and drink industry.
