Qatar: Joining forces to manage commercial-scale indoor farm

Sadarah Group (owner of indoor farm Agrico) and iFarm joined forces to build and collaboratively manage a commercial-scale indoor farm based in the State of Qatar. The multi-year partnership will optimize the growing of leafy greens, strawberries, and edible flowers and ensure a year-round supply of fresh produce to the Qatari people. 

“Combining Agrico and iFarm’s capability will deliver consumers even more of the freshest produce at the same day,” said Ahmed Hussain Al-Khalaf, Chairman of Sadarah/Agrico. “Once the development is ready we will jointly be delivering the freshest strawberries and lettuces available anywhere in the world.”  

“Vertical farming is a key to boosting food security in Qatar. We are excited to tap into Agrigo’s long-standing expertise in the region and work together toward helping Qatar achieve its ambitious goals of food independence”, said Kirill Zelenski, CEO of iFarm - Intellectual Farm, OY.

Trial farm 
The first phase of the Sadarah-iFarm partnership involves developing a commercial trial farm at Sadarah’s Agrico Farm in Al Khor, Qatar. This will be the first deployment in the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council of an AI-managed vertical farm that uses drones to monitor crop health and yield management.

The second phase of the joint project entails commercial distribution of the produce to the local Qatar market. Next to that, they're aiming to expand the vertical farming technology to other farms in Qatar and its regional neighbours. 

Kirill added, “I believe that it's the beginning of a long-term and fruitful collaboration. The role of iFarm won’t be limited to simply supplying equipment and software at the construction phase, but we will help oversee the farm after it’s up and running and provide support to our partners in managing iFarm’s cutting-edge technology.”

Creating independency
Qatar-Russia Investment and Trade Advisory (QRITA) acted as an advisor in establishing the partnership and will continue to work with iFarm and Sadarah to develop their joint venture further.

Oleg Chizh, the Managing Director and CEO of QRITA, said: “We are pleased to facilitate the integration of iFarm's technology in partnership with Sadarah, into Qatar's food security framework and the MENA region. This is consistent with QRITA’s mission to enable impactful cross-border partnerships between the Russia/CIS and GCC regions. We look forward to supporting the partners in launching this pilot project and, hopefully, many subsequent projects. We are honored to contribute to promoting sustainable urban farming in Qatar.”