Fischer Farms (Großbritannien) – Europas größte vertikale Farm produziert bereits Basilikum und Schnittlauch zu ähnlichen Kosten wie importierte Kräuter. „Und unser langfristiges Ziel ist es, dass wir deutlich günstiger werden können“

I shouldn’t really need to explain this technology to people in this sub, but vertical farms hydroponically grow plants indoors 24/7, all year round. They use mineral substrates instead of soil – in a controlled environment and thereby increase the yield dramatically.

I was sceptical about them until reading this article about it being actually being **cost competitive** thanks to the increasing efficiency, lower temperatures, and **lower costs of newer LEDs**. This is despite electricity prices in the UK being higher than most other industrialised countries. At the same time, the **costs of traditional farming are rising significantly**.

>Mr Fischer says: “We’re on this downward cost curve on LEDs. And then when you think about other main inputs, energy – renewable energy – is constantly coming down as well.

>”So you think about all the big drivers of vertical farming, they’re going down, whereas compared to full-grown crops, everything’s going up – the fertilisers, rents, water is becoming more expensive too.”

>This farm – which currently sells to restaurant chains rather than direct to consumers – is now cost-competitive with the basil shipped (or more often flown) in from the Mediterranean and North Africa. The carbon footprint is considerably lower too.

>”And our long-term goal is that we can get a lot cheaper,” says Mr Fischer. “If you look at Farm 1, we spent about £2.5m on lights in 2018. Fast forward to Farm 2; it’s seven and a half times bigger and in those three years the lights were effectively half the price. We’re also probably using 60 to 70 percent less power.”

>But here in the UK, with power costs higher than anywhere else in the developed world, the prospects for this business are more challenged than elsewhere. Still, Mr Fischer’s objective is to prove the business case here before building bigger units elsewhere, in countries with much cheaper power.

They plan to move to growing other, trickier and more competitive crops too – from strawberries to wheat and rice.

These facilities **can be located anywhere**, even directly where they’re consumed. Imagine hypermarkets with their own vertical farms underneath them.