Planet Farms is not your typical vertical-farming business growing microgreens, salad leaves and herbs in a controlled indoor environment. The Italy-based company, set up in 2018 by Daniele Benatoff and Luca Travaglini, has its eyes on a bigger pie beyond leafy greens with coffee, and even cotton. And rather than being narrowly focused on supermarkets – Planet Farms has just won a contract to supply Waitrose in the UK – it aims to bag industrial customers, too.
Fresh off the launch of a joint venture with Swiss Life Asset Managers, part of the Swiss Life Group, and with new funding in hand to expand operations into the UK and Scandinavia, CEO Benatoff chats with Just Food's Simon Harvey.
Simon Harvey (SH): What's your broad assessment of the industry given the number of vertical-farming companies that have gone out of business?
Daniele Benatoff (DB): It's not surprising that the US and the UK have had their fair share as they had more than their fair share of start-ups in the space because there was a lot of capital available.
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