August 25, 2021

By Lynda Kiernan-Stone, Global AgInvesting Media

Cargill has partnered with vertical farming leader AeroFarms in a novel, multi-year research initiative that will use controlled environment agriculture (CEA) to improve cocoa production. 

Founded in 2004 and headquartered in Newark, New Jersey, and as a Certified B Corporation since 2017, AeroFarms uses advanced technologies to take agricultural production to the next level without the use of soil, herbicides, pesticides, or fungicides.

Employing proprietary technologies and software-controlled LED grow lights, AeroFarms’ vertical indoor farms grow crops suspended above a nutrient rich solution with water, oxygen, and nutrients misted onto the plants’ roots. This system allows AeroFarms to produce crops twice as fast as traditional farming, reflecting productivity 390 times greater per square foot, using 95 percent less water.

Through the integration of plant biology, mechanical design, environmental control, data science, operations, and plant genetics, AeroFarms is able to disrupt traditional supply chains and solve issues born of macro challenges such as population growth, water scarcity, or loss of arable land – many of which are putting pressure on the world’s leading cocoa producing countries.

Through this multi-year collaboration, Cargill and AeroFarms will integrate Cargill’s knowledge in cocoa production and agronomy with AeroFarms’ expertise in CEA to conduct experiments using indoor production methods including hydroponics and aeroponics, as well as light, carbon dioxide, irrigation, nutrition, plant space, and pruning to identify and isolate the optimal conditions for cocoa tree growth.

Although AeroFarms has grown more than 550 crops, cocoa is a new one for the company, and this project presents an exciting opportunity to explore new ground, as it were. Initial exploratory work has begun at AeroFarms’ headquarters in Newark, New Jersey, which will soon expand to the company’s state-of-the-art AeroFarms AgX Research & Development indoor vertical farm in Abu Dhabi, UAE, which is expected to open early next year.

This partnership also comes five months after AeroFarms went public through a SPAC merger that valued the company at $1.2 billion, and provided it with approximately $317 million in unrestricted cash at close. 

“AeroFarms shares a similar vision as Cargill to nourish the world in a safe, responsible and sustainable way,” said David Rosenberg, co-founder & CEO, AeroFarms. “We have grown over 550 different crops, and we are excited to be working on another project with them, this time focused on cocoa.”

Rosenberg continued, “At AeroFarms we think of our proprietary technology as a platform to optimize plant biology, genetics, mechanical systems, operational systems, environmental systems and digital controls, data capture and analytics. Genetics and speed breeding is one of the verticals where we focus. Applying our platform to optimize cocoa growing is one way that AeroFarms can have a broader positive impact on the world.”

The insights gained through this work will target a number of factors including faster tree growth, improved yields, the accelerated development of cocoa varieties with better resistance to pests and diseases, and unlocking the full flavor and color potential of cocoa beans. These outcomes will serve to secure the future supply of cocoa beans in the face of climate change.

“Environmental challenges and growing demand for cocoa products are placing increased pressure on the global cocoa supply chain,” said Niels Boetje, managing director, Cargill Cocoa Europe.

“Through partnerships with research institutes, universities and innovative companies like AeroFarms, we are collaborating across sectors in bold experiments to bring greater productivity and resiliency to traditional cocoa farming operations,” he added. “We look forward to sharing our findings with the farmer cooperatives in our cocoa supply chain to help ensure a thriving cocoa sector for generations to come.”

– Lynda Kiernan-Stone is editor with GAI Media, and is managing editor and daily contributor for Global AgInvesting’s AgInvesting Weekly News and  Agtech Intel News, as well as HighQuest Group’s Oilseed & Grain News. She can be reached at lkiernan-stone@globalaginvesting.com.