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Plenty has opened its vertical farm in Richmond, Virginia, US, to grow berries at scale.

The indoor farm, first announced in September 2022, is said to be ‘one of the most technologically advanced farms in the world,’ making it possible to grow produce with peak-season flavour, year-round, almost anywhere in the world.

The Richmond farm is able to produce more than 4 million pounds of strawberries per year – in less than 40,000 square feet – by growing vertically on 30-foot-tall towers.

The farm will grow Driscoll's strawberries, combining Plenty's technology with global berry grower Driscoll's advanced genetics. The first strawberries from the farm will be available in early 2025.

While most vertical farms focus on leafy greens, Plenty stands out with its patent-pending, modular growing system. The system, which the firm has spent ten years designing and optimising, is flexible enough to support a wide variety of crops – including strawberries.

The vertical towers enable uniform delivery of nutrients, superior airflow and more intense lighting, delivering increased yield with consistent quality.

Every element of the Plenty Richmond Farm – including temperature, light and humidity – is precisely controlled through proprietary software to create the perfect environment for the strawberry plants to thrive.

It employs AI to analyse over 10 million data points each day across its 12 grow rooms, adapting each room's environment to the evolving needs of the plants, which optimises the strawberries' flavour, texture and size.

Plenty has also engineered pollination. It uses a method that evenly distributes controlled airflow across the strawberry flowers – Plenty says this provides more efficient and effective pollination than using bees, which supports more uniform strawberry size and shape.

Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin said: “Plenty's farm will boost local agriculture production and drive economic development, all while diversifying against risks and protecting the environment”.

Plenty’s CEO Arama Kukutai commented: “This farm is a model for the positive impact climate-agnostic agriculture can have, and proof that vertical farming can deliver the crop diversity, scaled and local production needed to future-proof the global food system. The Plenty Richmond Farm is the culmination of 200 research trials over the past six years to perfect growing strawberries with consistent peak-season flavour indoors year-round.”

Kukutai continued: “Driscoll's sets an incredibly high bar for the quality of its berries and we're excited to join forces to consistently deliver an ultra-premium Driscoll's strawberry year-round".

Soren Bjorn, Driscoll's chief executive, added: “Partnering with Plenty for the launch of the Richmond Farm allows us to bring our premium strawberries closer to consumers in the Northeast, the largest berry consumption region in the US. This new innovative farm is a powerful step forward in continuing to drive category growth in new ways for our customers and consumers."

The Plenty Richmond Farm uses 97% less land and up to 90% less water than conventional farming. It is expected to bring more than 60 jobs to Virginia and is the first farm to open on Plenty's 120-acre farm campus, which is the ‘largest indoor vertical farm campus in the world’.

In July, Plenty and Mawarid announced an exclusive multi-year partnership to invest over AED 500 million ($130 million) in an indoor vertical farm in Abu Dhabi, aiming to produce more than 2 million kilograms of strawberries annually.

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