The vertical farming wars by way of Luxembourg

Added on 26 April 2022

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The vertical farming wars by way of Luxembourg

Vertical farming technology company Kalera has officially requested that the merger of its US parent company with its Luxembourg subsidiary be allowed to remain listed on the Oslo stock exchange. Once the merger is completed, it will be able to move towards another listing, on Nasdaq, through its merger with Agrico, a special-purpose acquisition company (Spac) that will bring in around $400m, including $147m in cash.

Behind the financial technicality of these deals lies a race for speed. The competition is getting organised against this company, which relies on technology to supply fresh vegetables grown indoors to certain shops such as Publix, Kroger and Walmart, in regions where it has farms in the US (Orlando, Atlanta and Houston). It will open in Denver and Seattle this year, in St. Paul, Minnesota, in Singapore in the second quarter of 2022, and in new locations in Southeast Asia and the Middle East.

But its main customer, Walmart, has announced it is investing in competitor Plenty, which is capable of supplying all the brand's shops by the end of the year.

Vertical farms are state-of-the-art, as they are fully automated, supported by real-time data analysis that allows humans to control and improve production to reduce fertilisers, eliminate pesticides and reduce washing operations for field-harvested vegetables to zero.

This article is taken from the weekly newsletter Paperjam Trendin', the place to be for news on innovation and new technologies. You can subscribe to it by clicking here. (in French)