First strawberries harvested from Belgian-Canadian vertical farm

With financial backing from several Flemish business families, including the Bostoen and De Pauw families, Olivier Paulus has launched a vertical strawberry farm in Canada. The production takes place in a warehouse about 30 kilometers north of Montreal, and since this spring, the fruits of the start-up Vertiberry have been appearing on store shelves.

For now, the farm is still relatively small, producing around 1,000 kilograms of strawberries per week. But Paulus has big ambitions: he aims to scale up to 15,000 kilograms per week, he says in De Tijd (link in Dutch). A long-term contract is already in place with distributor and co-investor Taste of The North, which will help secure those future volumes.

Competition in summer is tough, since local field-grown strawberries are abundant and sold at very low prices. But outside of peak season, Canadian consumers typically eat strawberries flown in from thousands of kilometers away, from California, Florida, or Mexico. "That's where we can compete," Paulus explains. "Consumers and retailers are increasingly open to locally grown, pesticide-free strawberries."

Vertiberry was founded in 2018 and is already looking beyond Canada. Expansion plans are on the horizon for both the Middle East and Scandinavia.

© Rebekka Boekhout | VerticalFarmDaily.comOlivier at GreenTech Amsterdam 2024