July 19, 2024

By Gerelyn Terzo, Global AgInvesting Media

San Francisco-based farming startup Plenty Unlimited has formed a joint venture with Mawarid Holding Investment, an Alpha Dhabi Holding subsidiary, in the UAE for fresh strawberry production using its vertical farming technology. The companies have committed to investing a total of $680 million over the next half decade to grow fresh produce locally in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) nations, which are highly dependent on imports for their food supply.

Plenty has taken a fresh approach to farming, growing produce vertically in a climate-controlled environment indoors, a more efficient process compared with traditional farming that yields cleaner crops and requires zero pesticides. The company’s Compton, California, farm could potentially save millions of gallons of water each year, while producing as much as 350 times more leafy greens per acre, according to the company. Plenty’s expansion push also involves the U.S. market, where it is readying the debut of another vertical strawberry farm in the state of Virginia later this year.

Vertical farming, a capital intensive industry that remains in the nascent stages, also makes it possible to grow produce in places that are otherwise out of reach for crops, including the middle of the desert. Plenty and Mawarid will direct $130 million into the venture’s maiden project, an indoor vertical farm located in Abu Dhabi, which will be built with the capacity to grow over 2 million kilograms of strawberries each year. With a target completion date of year-end 2026, the facility, comprising 7,500 square meters, will mark the first commercial-scale vertical strawberry farm outside of North America.

Strawberry production from this farm has been pre-committed to Driscoll’s, a California-based berry grower and Plenty partner, which is lending its proprietary genetics and market savvy to the deal. Over the course of the next five years, the partnership has set its sights on developing as many as five farms, which would require the total investment amount and would, in turn, create thousands of job opportunities to local residents in the GCC.

Plenty CEO Arama Kukutai told GAI, “We have a unique commercial model for the UAE farm in which the total strawberry output of the farm is being distributed by Driscoll’s to their GCC-wide customers on a long-term commitment. Our ability to sell out the farm before it’s built is indicative of the strength of the demand for strawberries in the GCC and the power of developing local supply for a desirable crop that is currently almost exclusively imported.”

While Gulf nations are known for their oil prowess, one area in which they are greatly lacking is food security, causing them to rely on imports for over 85 percent of their food needs. More than three-quarters of the UAE’s land is comprised of desert, with only a fraction considered arable, resulting in a mere 20 percent of the country’s food grown domestically.

As scorching temperatures and soaring humidity in the region persists, where it feels like 65 degrees Celsius (149 degrees Fahrenheit) in some places of late, sustainable farming becomes an even greater challenge. The Plenty/Mawarid partnership sets out to bolster food security and create a more sustainable future for communities in this region of the world.

Mawarid has place a heightened focus on “adopting cutting-edge technologies” to bolster food security in the UAE, according to CEO Kashif Shamsi, who shared, “Our global search for a sustainable solution to the challenges we face in the Middle East led us to the incredible team at Plenty. This joint venture enables us to leverage the most advanced farming technology in the world to grow local food supply throughout the GCC, beginning with our home market in Abu Dhabi, while preserving our precious natural resources.”

Plenty chief Kukutai touted the world’s “most technologically advanced indoor farming platform” that in addition to satisfying consumer demand 24/7 can nimbly adapt to the needs of the Middle Eastern region, alongside the company’s new local partner. He stated: “The Mawarid team’s extensive expertise with agriculture and land management in the Emirates makes them a great partner to meet these dual opportunities, in a region that has long been poised to benefit from the promise of indoor agriculture.”

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