Saudi Arabia fund and AeroFarms plan for new Middle East farms

Newark, N.J.-based AeroFarms is expanding its operations in the Middle East.

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) has signed a joint venture agreement with vertical farming company AeroFarms to establish a company in Riyadh to build and operate indoor vertical farms in Saudi Arabia and the wider Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, according to a news release.

AeroFarms, founded in 2004, has plans for an additional seven commercial farms to be built by 2030, Marc Oshima, co-founder and chief marketing officer of AeroFarms, said in an email.

In addition to its several U.S. commercial farms, AeroFarms has state-of-the-art R&D indoor vertical farming facilities both in the U.S. and the United Arab Emirates, according to the company.

“This expansion will help accelerate work on our next-generation technologies for Model 6 and Model 7 growing systems and in turn, help accelerate farm expansion in other regions including the U.S.,” Oshima said in the email.

The agreement between the Public Investment Fund in Saudi Arabia and AeroFarms will result in the construction of several farms across the Middle East region in the next few years, the release said. The first farm in Saudi Arabia, which is expected to be the largest indoor vertical farm of its kind in the Middle East and North Africa region, will have an annual production capacity of up to 2.4 million pounds of agricultural crops, the release said.

Vertical farming is expected to boost regional food supply through increased production of sustainable, locally produced high-quality crops, the release said.

“The agreement with AeroFarms will lead to the establishment of indoor vertical farms in Saudi Arabia and the wider MENA region, increasing regional reliance on locally produced, high-quality crops grown in a sustainable way using the latest technologies,” Majed AlAssaf, head of consumer goods and retail, MENA Investments Division at PIF, said in the release.

David Rosenberg, co-founder and CEO of AeroFarms, said in the release that the company was excited to partner with PIF to build its first large-scale commercial farm in Saudi Arabia.

“We envision building together smart indoor vertical farms throughout the broader Middle East/North Africa region,” he said in the release.