Vertical farming business Jones Food Company is opening a new specialist state-of-the-art innovation centre in Bristol that will aim to end the UK’s reliance on imported soft fruits, herbs and cut flowers within the next 10 years.
The facility, opening 6 June, will act as a test bed for produce to be grown at JFC’s newest vertical farm, which will open in nearby Lydney in the autumn and was touted at the time as the world’s largest.
With the opening of the innovation centre, the company hopes to eradicate the need for the UK to import soft fruits, herbs and cut flowers within the next ten years.
However, in an interview with The Grocer, JFC founder and CEO James Lloyd-Jones was even more optimistic about the centre’s potential to boost the UK’s self-sufficiency.
“My big goal in the next three years is to have a portfolio of vertical farms in the UK and some abroad, but specifically in the UK to really cut imports, so we can say we grow 99% of our food here,” he said. “I don’t think we need to be looking a decade ahead, I am too impatient to be worrying about ten years ahead. Let’s do it two years ahead.”
With six growth chambers, the company’s R&D team will be able to trial numerous crops at once. The company’s currently three-person team of researchers and scientists all aged under 27 will closely study the growing requirements of various plants and varieties.
JFC breaks ground on ‘world’s largest vertical farm’
The new facility would enable the business to evolve its produce range from the leafy greens growing in JFC’s original site in Lincolnshire, from which it already supplies over 3,000 stores in the UK, the business said.
JFC already supplies 30% of the UK’s basil to major retailers and once the JFC2 site in Lydney opens in autumn its combined growing space will equate to 96 tennis courts stacked in vertical layers.
Its plans to expand beyond leafy greens were announced earlier this year via a partnership with Berry Gardens – the UK’s largest supplier of berries and cherries – where the companies will aim to extend the British strawberry season to 12 months.
“We already know we can grow products other than leafy greens, from mushrooms to blackberries to tulips, but our task through this new facility is to push the speed of growth to work on a commercial scale,” said Glynn Stephens, head of growing at JFC.
“We want consumers to be able to pick up vertically grown peppers, tomatoes or berries at their local retailer, and know that the product is sustainable and hasn’t had to travel hundreds of miles to get to their plate.”
Hydroponic growing uses controlled environments which removes variables such as seasonality, land space and pests. JFC also claims that this growing environment uses 95% less water, reduces food miles, allows planting and harvesting 365 days per year and, as JFC shows can be done, using 100% green energy.
Berry Gardens and JFC partner in trials of vertically grown strawberries
Vertical farming is a rapidly growing industry with many other firms claiming to operate the largest farms in the UK and Europe.
However, founder Lloyd-Jones stated that much of the competition in this space was dominated by technology providers selling the technology to others who don’t have the technical or growing knowledge to operate the farms, which differs to JFC.
“Not only do we design, build and operate our plants, we then innovate, make changes and move forward with new designs to optimise everything about our new farms.”
He also suggested the competition was not as steep as may be suggested, “lots of vertical farms aren’t operating because of high energy costs, the plans have been put on ice because they are not where they thought they would be or they have already gone bust”.
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