The Plenty Richmond Farm is growing strawberries exclusively for Driscoll, creating year-round local supply and driving category berry regional growth.
Plenty Unlimited Inc. has announced it has opened the world's first farm to grow indoor, vertically farmed berries at scale.
The Plenty farm in Richmond, Virginia, is designed to produce more than 4,000,000 pounds of strawberries annually in less than 40,000 square feet by growing vertically on 30-foot-tall towers.
The farm will exclusively grow Driscoll's, Inc.’s strawberries—Driscoll's is a California-based seller of fresh strawberries and other berries—combining Plenty's advanced technology with global premium berry leader Driscoll's advanced genetics. The first strawberries from the farm will be available in early 2025.
"With agriculture serving as the Commonwealth's largest private sector industry, Plenty choosing Virginia for the world's first farm to grow indoor, vertically farmed berries at scale reinforces Virginia's leading role in the controlled environment agriculture industry," said Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin. "Plenty's farm will boost local agriculture production and drive economic development, all while diversifying against risks and protecting the environment. We look forward to supporting their innovative approaches to revolutionizing the industry and know that Plenty's success will be Virginia's success."
While most vertical farms are limited to lettuces, Plenty spent the past decade designing a patent-pending, modular growing system flexible enough to support a wide variety of crops, including strawberries. Growing on vertical towers enables 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.
The farm uses AI (artificial intelligence) to analyze more than 10 million data points each day across its 12 grow rooms, adapting each grow room's environment to the evolving needs of the plants, creating the perfect environment for Driscoll's proprietary plants to thrive, and optimizing the strawberries' flavor, texture, and size.
Even pollination has been engineered by Plenty, using a patent-pending method that evenly distributes controlled airflow across the strawberry flowers for more efficient and effective pollination than using bees, supporting more uniform strawberry size and shape.
"This farm is a model for the positive impact climate-agnostic agriculture can have, and [is] proof that vertical farming can deliver the crop diversity, scaled, and local production needed to future-proof the global food system," said Arama Kukutai, the Chief Executive Officer at Plenty.
"The Plenty Richmond Farm is the culmination of 200 research trials over the past six years to perfect growing strawberries with consistent peak-season flavor indoors year-round. 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."
The Plenty Richmond Farm brings year-round production of fresh produce within a one-day drive to more than 100 million consumers. Growing locally reduces food miles and food waste, and the farm itself uses 97 percent less land and up to 90 percent less water than conventional farming.
"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," said Soren Bjorn, Driscoll's Chief Executive Officer. "By combining our 100 years of farming expertise and proprietary varieties along with Plenty's cutting-edge technology, we can deliver the same consistent flavor and quality our customers love—now grown locally. 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 is slated to bring more than 60 jobs to Virginia and is the first farm to open on Plenty's 120-acre farm campus. The Plenty Richmond Farm Campus is the largest indoor vertical farm campus in the world and a projected $300 million investment that is planned to bring more than 300 total jobs to Virginia.
Plenty operates advanced indoor farms in Compton, California, and near Richmond, Virginia; is building its first international farm in Abu Dhabi; and is developing the world's largest vertical farming research center in Laramie, Wyoming. For more information, visit www.plenty.ag.