In-store farm concept yields healthy harvest

It is in fact a 200 sq ft "plant station" where five varieties of lettuce are grown under the glare of LED light and remotely-controlled temperatures, ready to be picked by customers.

This plant station or in-store farm is part of an ambitious vertical farming venture operated by Vegetory, a Malaysian company that is responsible for developing the Plant Factory Indoor Farming (P-F-I-F) system.

The premium supermarket's plant station came into operation sometime last year - a collaboration between BSC Fine Foods and Vegetory.

Vegetory, founded by husband-and-wife duo Roy Liew and Celleste Kok in 2017, strives to drive innovative and sustainable farming methods by using advanced technology to produce fresh vegetables.

"We emphasise food safety and produce fresh crops with stable quality.

"Aside from offering consumers tastier and healthier vegetables, the in-store farm is much kinder to the environment than traditional farming," said Liew.

Kok said currently, five types of lettuce - mizuna, romaine, crisphead, red oak and rocket - as well as two types of kale - green and red - are being cultivated in the indoor farm.

The couple, who both have a background in science and technology, are at present conducting research and development on the cultivation of tomatoes, wasabi leaves and basil in the plant station environment.

"All our produce are harvested and packed fresh daily and can be readily consumed as they are grown hydroponically and are 100% free of pesticides.

"As there is no middleman, our vegetables retain their nutritional value and taste for a longer period of time.

"Usually, the shelf life of the vegetables is a week, but our customers mostly buy and consume them on the same day," she said, adding that public response to their produce has so far been excellent.

A medium-sized box of the plant station-grown lettuce costs RM7.20 to RM9.90.

According to Liew, the vertical farming concept is used as it does not require much space and will not give rise to issues such as soil degradation and pollution, which often lead to the formation of wastelands.

BSC Fine Foods's plant station is based on the modular farm system that Vegetory has developed for supermarkets and grocery stores.

The facility is Vegetory's first in-store farm in Malaysia.

"Our modular farms can be placed in a variety of customer-facing city locations, such as grocery stores, restaurants, malls and even schools, enabling end consumers to pick the produce themselves," he said.

Liew added that the idea of embarking on a vertical farming project came about during a business trip to Taiwan where vertical farming is referred to as a plant factory.

"My wife and I got to visit a plant factory where we tasted a big bowl of freshly-picked and crunchy salad.

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Photo by Petr Magera on Unsplash

Source: The Star