A 750 m² warehouse on the Tietê River Marginal Highway produces two tons of lettuce and herbs per month without soil, without sun, and with daily harvesting for supermarkets in the capital.
Amidst the concrete and incessant traffic of the Marginal Tietê highway in Vila Leopoldina, a 750-square-meter warehouse houses the first commercial vertical farm in Latin America. There, Pink Farms operates like a living laboratory, where lettuce, arugula, and herbs grow in eight-story towers without a gram of soil or sun exposure.
Founded in 2016 by three engineers – twins Mateus and Rafael Delalibera, both electrical engineers from USP, and Geraldo Maia, a production engineer from UFSCar – the operation transformed an idle urban space into a productive unit that delivers two tons of leaves per month directly to supermarkets in São Paulo.
This approach, which combines hydroponics with artificial lighting, allows for continuous harvests throughout the year, eliminating post-harvest losses that can reach 40% in traditional Brazilian agriculture.
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