Germany’s Greenman Group is launching a vertical farming business to grow vegetables in urban tower blocks.
Potager Farm will be a subsidiary of the grocery-anchored real estate investment and fund manager, and will be helmed by Mario Gatineau as managing director.
The new farm-firm will be based in Berlin and will initially integrate vertical farming across Greenman’s German retail centres. It plans to grow herbs, leafy greens and micro veg indoors, which it will then supply to its retail tenants.
Potager Farm will co-operate with Scottish-based IGS, which builds vertical farms around the world. Its technology has so far been deployed across four continents.
Johnnie Wilkinson, chief executive at Greenman, said: “Potager Farm is an exciting new venture, placing the Greenman Group at the forefront of a revolution in new agriculture technology. Our experience in the food retail sector has shown us that vertical farming will become an increasingly important part of the food supply chain in Europe.”
He added: “Vertical farming is expanding rapidly across Europe as agricultural space becomes increasingly scarce and pressure on the sustainability of supply chains and food production continues to mount. At Greenman, we are extremely well placed to leverage our relationships with some of the largest food retailers in Germany to drive this initiative forward and play our part in improving the sustainability of the food supply chain.”
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