Norway's Avisomo has taken its vertical farming technology into full commercial operation through Himmelgrønt AS, a joint venture with Coop Norway that launched today with bagged baby leaf Crispy lettuce reaching Coop Mega stores across the country. The Reindyrka product line is grown using Avisomo's proprietary Frøy Growth System, in which crops are cultivated in industry-standard CC-trolleys moved through the facility by autonomous robots. No personnel handle produce at any stage of the process.
"Today's launch proves that the 'Maker and Merchant' model is no longer a concept, but a commercial reality," says Martin Molenaar, CEO of Avisomo. "By empowering Coop to own their production, we have shifted the narrative from vertical farming as a niche project to an industrial-scale utility."
© Avisomo
Proximity production
The facility is located near Coop's distribution infrastructure, a design decision that Avisomo says reduces significant road miles compared with imported alternatives. "We aren't just selling lettuce; we are selling a fundamental change in retail logistics," says Endre Thesen Harnes, Chief Commercial Officer at Avisomo. "By growing these baby leaves in an automated facility just meters from distribution, we've eliminated thousands of road miles and the enormous waste typically associated with imported greens."
The company says the proximity model delivers produce that was still growing hours before it reached the shelf. The shelf life of the bagged lettuce is reported to be up to eight times longer than that of traditionally imported greens, a figure Avisomo attributes to the absence of human contact during handling.
© Avisomo
© Avisomo
Scalability as the commercial thesis
Molenaar says the Coop partnership is designed to demonstrate the system's capacity to meet national retail requirements, including hygiene standards, volume stability, and supply consistency. "The scalability of the Avisomo Growth Station allows us to meet the rigorous stability and hygiene requirements of a national retailer like Coop without the astronomical labor costs that have historically hindered this industry," he says. "We have built a system that is flexible enough to adapt to changing consumer demands with the push of a button, ensuring that our partners always have the right crop at the right time."
Avisomo describes the Coop rollout as the first proof point of its industrial system and says further projects are planned to demonstrate scale beyond the pilot facility. "With Coop, we demonstrate our system's industrial capabilities," Molenaar adds. "For our next project, we will prove the potential that lies in scaling our system."
© Avisomo
For more information:
Avisomo
Endre Harnes, Chief Commercial Officer
[email protected]
www.avisomo.com
