Retailers can earn brownie points with environmentally and ethically minded consumers already by boasting about selling local produce, but what if supermarkets could go one better and grow their own crops in-store?
It might sound fanciful, but some of Europe’s leading venture capitalists have invested $25 million in a start-up that produces vertical indoor “farms” that can be located in everything from supermarket aisles to restaurant kitchens, schools and distribution warehouses.
Infarm already operates more than 50 farms across Berlin and says that 1,000 units will be operational by 2019, including about 200 farms in London.
Erez Galonska, co-founder and chief executive of Infarm, said: “Rather than asking ourselves how to fix the deficiencies in the current supply chain, we wanted to redesign the entire