Vertical farm firm starts constructing West plant
VERTICAL farming pioneer Jones Food Company has broken ground on its second venture.
Launched three years ago in a converted cold store in Scunthorpe, it is now building three times bigger in Gloucestershire, with a 148,000 sq ft addition in Lydney.
It is the first major capital investment since backing was secured from online retailer Ocado, and will feature growing space equivalent to 70 tennis courts – “comfortably” making it the world’s largest.
Founder James Lloyd-Jones anticipates supplying 1,000 tonnes of fresh produce to UK supermarkets from the location, first revealed in June.
He said: “With this new facility we further accelerate Britain’s position as a world-leader when it comes to vertical farming. We already supply thousands of British retail stores with basil grown in our first facility in Lincolnshire but this new site, which is three times bigger, will allow us to supply tens of thousands more stores and to widen our product offer with our partners.”
Dubbed JFC2, it will open early next year, with the company declining to reveal the build cost or eventual staff numbers.
“Our food supply chain is under significant stress, with empty supermarket shelves and shortages of foods increasingly common place,” Mr Lloyd-Jones said. “Vertical farming is undoubtedly a vital part of the UK’s and the world’s farming future.
“Given what we’re already doing, the world-leading technology we have and the intensely pressing need for more sustainable forms of farming over coming decades, we plan to be able to supply 70 per cent of the UK’s fresh produce within the next 10 years.
“From an environmental perspective, vertical farming allows us to grow in 17 layers, so every acre becomes 17 times more productive. It allows us to grow entirely without pesticides and using 95 per cent less water. And it means we can significantly reduce the air and road miles of the foods we grow.
“But vertical farming doesn’t just make environmental sense, it makes economic sense too. Scale is vital in order to create a cost base that allows us to deliver delicious, healthy herbs, salad leaves, cut flowers, fruit and veg at a price the average shopper also really likes. This second facility further cements our ability to do this.”
To meet the target, more facilities elsewhere in the UK are anticipated.
“We believe, through the latest vertical farming technology, the ‘garden of England’ can now grow in Cornwall, Gloucestershire, Yorkshire, Argyll, Fermanagh and pretty much any other county in this country or any other, providing sustainable solutions for the UK’s food chain.
“We’ve learnt so much, had such strong backing and have such amazing technology that we now believe we can replicate and replicate and replicate.
“I accept we’re currently a small part of the UK’s agriculture industry, but this move makes us mainstream, it makes us a really significant player in this country. And you only have to look at Germany, the Netherlands, the United States, across the Middle East and Asia to see this is a global movement, revolutionising the way the world grows produce – vertical farming is the future.
“Building the world’s biggest vertical farm puts the UK at the vanguard of this global movement – we’re leading the world’s vertical farming revolution.”
Mr Jones has been named as one of the UK’s ‘One Step Greener’ climate ambassadors ahead of the Cop 26 Climate Conference in November.