The innovative lettuce plant Staay Food wants to build in the Dutch town of Dronten only exists on paper. This ambitious project - Europe's largest 'vertical farm' - has been delayed and is becoming substantially more costly. Company owner, Dammis van der Staaij, indicated on this site in December already that lettuce cultivation would no longer take place in the processing plant, but elsewhere on the site.
However, construction has not yet begun. It is waiting on an operating subsidy worth several million euros. According to the Group's Director, Rien Panneman, this needs to be granted by the European Fund for Regional Development (EFRO). ‘We do not yet have written confirmation that we will be getting the EFRO subsidy", he said in the Dutch business newspaper, the Financieel Dagblad. The lettuce's buyers, several German supermarket chains, want this guarantee before they sign any contracts.
Due to this delay, construction and installation costs have since increased by 25%. The investment, including installations, is now estimated to stand at EUR10 million. This means the lettuce will soon become more expensive, says Panneman. The three varieties Staay Food wants to grow - Lollo Bionda, Frisée, and Lollo Rosso - will, by the latest indication, be twice as expensive as regular lettuce. "It will certainly not be a commodity", says Panneman. ‘We are going to use it in ready-to-eat salads. Then it will be affordable, we think."
But, will construction continue? "We believe it will. We are pioneers in this field. It is just becoming an expensive project. Once the grant has been definitively secured, we can get started with the construction. I hope we will be able to harvest the first lettuce before the end of 2019", he says.
Source: Financieel Dagblad