Tall lettuce farm to rise

It will be the fourth facility for the company, which opened a large Orlando location this year after proving the concept with The HyCube, a modular vertical farm built to supply the Marriott Orlando World Center on-site in 2018.

Kalera, a vertical farming company, leased a new 83,436-square-foot building in Parc 59 at 7159 Rankin Road in Humble. Jackson-Shaw developed the two-building, 279,500-square-foot Parc 59 with equity partner Thackaray Partners.Photo: Jackson-Shaw

At 83,436 square feet, the building, at 7159 Rankin Road in Humble, will be 2˝ times the size of the newest Orlando farm, and about 12 percent larger than one going up in Atlanta. The vertical farms are part of a plan to scale the company across North America and globally.

"What we're doing is bringing back what used to always be the normal, which is to eat where you are, and to eat produce that is not weeks old," said Daniel Malechuk, CEO of Kalera.

Kalera wants to take a bite out of the lettuce market, which is concentrated on traditional farms in California and Arizona. Its cleanroom technology process eliminates both the need for pesticides and washing and processing the lettuces to prepare them for shipment up to 1,200 miles or more by truck.

The Kalera farms, which grow lettuces by stacking them in LED-lit warehouses, are designed to use 95 percent less water than traditional farms. It takes six weeks from seed to harvest, shaving about two weeks off the traditional timeline. The process also protects against pathogens such as E. coli.

With COVID-19, consumers have a heightened concern for where products come from and how many people have touched them, said Malechuk.

When it opens in late spring 2021, Kalera will work with local grocers and major food distribution companies to deliver produce to stores, restaurants, schools, hotels, hospitals and cruise lines the same day harvested. The prices will be in line with traditional artisan lettuces, Malechuk said.

The facility, which will employ 55 to 70 people, will serve Houston as well as markets within a few hours away by truck. Lettuce harvested in the morning
could be served at a restaurant in Dallas the same evening.

Source: Houston Chronicle

Photo: Daniel Malechuk is chief executive officer of Kalera, a technology-driven, vertical farming company that plans to open a Houston facility in 2021. Kalera will be able to grow 5 million pounds of lettuce — the equivalent of 15 million heads of lettuce — annually. Malechuk holds a head of lettuce at HyCube, Kalera's vertical farm on-site at the Photo credit:  Kalera

Source: Houston Chronicle