Enjoying sweet, fresh summer strawberries all year round sounds like a luxury, but it’s now a reality thanks to a vertical farming operation in Foxton.
26 Seasons released its first crop of locally grown, pesticide-free strawberries to select retailers, despite being one of the wettest winters on record.
It was a New Zealand first and one of very few companies across the world that could produce the tricky-to-grow fruit across all seasons.
Grant Leach, 26 Seasons CEO told REX Today the berry was just as delicious as the freshest in-season strawberries too.
"The operation in Foxton is the second generation of a large research project to create proof that we can actually create strawberries year-round to a taste and texture profile that is as good as the best in-season strawberries," Leach said.
The 1,350 square metre industrial site in Foxton was capable of producing one million punnets of spray-free strawberries annually.
It was a full hydroponic system, with no soil in a Nutrient Full Technology system. It used a high-tech lighting system in vertically stacked beds.
"We can make the off-season in-season, all year long. As well as supplying locally grown produce outside of traditional growing seasons, vertical farming is a viable solution to the growing issue of food security."
The controlled indoor environment removed external factors like weather, seasonality, pests and disease and mimicked perfect strawberry growing conditions 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year.
Listen to the full interview between Dominic George and Grant Leach from 26 seasons above.
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