Vertical farming company Infarm has announced that it will construct new growing centres in Canada, following an expansion of its partnership with retailer Sobeys.
The partnership between the two companies is expected to see Infarm supply fresh produce to Sobeys locations in all ten Canadian provinces when fully operational.
As part of the latest agreement, Infarm will establish new growing centres – growth, production and distribution hubs with high-capacity vertical farms – at sites in Calgary, Halifax and Winnipeg. In addition, there are plans for Hamilton, Ontario, to host the largest Infarm growing centre in North America.
Infarm’s growing centres integrate farming units which it claims can each save up to 10 million litres of water per year compared with soil-based agriculture for similar crops.
The deal comes in response to increased demand for fresh Infarm produce from retailers including Sobeys and its subsidiaries Safeway and Thrifty Foods.
Infarm also says that its Canadian team will expand by more than 50% to 160 employees by the end of the year.
“We’re delighted with what has been an extremely positive and successful partnership with the Sobeys family of retailers,” said Infarm CEO, Erez Galonska.
“This expansion deal represents one of the largest roll outs of any vertical farming company in North America to date as we aim to offer local, high-quality produce to people everywhere.”
Niluka Kottegoda, vice president customer experience at Sobeys, said: “We received overwhelmingly positive feedback from our customers and our store teams about the current Infarm product grown in our stores.
“We are thrilled to expand into the Infarm growing centres as they allow us to exponentially offer these great local products to a multitude of communities across Canada all year round.”
Last year, Infarm raised $170 million in a Series C funding round led by LGT Lightstone.
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