Growth prospects strong for controlled-environment leafy greens
Packer Interview - Abby Prior Dec 14
2020 has been a breakout year for indoor and greenhouse farming, and Abby Prior believes the momentum will continue to build.
Prior, senior vice president of sales and marketing for Irvington, N.Y.-based BrightFarms, spoke Dec. 14 with The Packer’s Tom Karst about the developments at BrightFarms and the broader indoor controlled environment industry.
BrightFarms, which grows lettuces, spinach, basil and other leafy greens, has seen explosive growth over the past five years. 2020 took demand to another level, she said.
“We opened our largest farm yet in February of this year, and in March, the whole world changed,” she said. “We were opening our largest farm yet, and trying to get it up to the maximum capacity as fast as we possibly could.”
Throughout the indoor controlled environment leafy greens segment, Prior said the pace of growth has doubled since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I think as consumers are becoming more and more knowledgeable about their food, about the safety of their food (and) where their food is coming from, we have seen an exponential rise in sales,” she said, noting sales increases of 30% compared with a year ago.
BrightFarms now has four large commercial farms, with a couple more in development, and there are other players that are also growing, she said.
“While we’re the leaders in scaling this business nationally, there are certainly several others doing the same and the indoor-grown segment has grown from about 1% of the total category to now approaching 3% of the category,” she said.
Prior said the sector’s capacity is roughly doubling every year, as more greenhouse and vertical farms continue to be built across the U.S.
“It’s is a matter of capacity catching up with demand, and I think a lot of us in the segment are right now just chasing capacity as fast as we can.”
BrightFarms has farms in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Illinois and Ohio. The company is completing the construction of a greenhouse in North Carolina. After that, she said BrightFarms is planning to expand in New England, followed by Texas.
The company recently raised $100 million in debt and equity financing it will use to expand its capacity.
“We’ve been able to prove that the consumer demand and the retailer demand is there,” she said.
Looking to the future, she said the appeal of a shorter supply chain and fresher product will continue to grow for both retailers and consumers.
“We see 2021 as another year of really looking for capacity, building capacity, and continuing to grow.”
