Element Farms has completed all phases of construction and onboarding at its first facility and has revealed its plans for expansion: a 2.5-acre spinach greenhouse designed with the exact specs for growing free baby spinach all year round.
Element Farms already grows over half a million pounds of pesticide-free and local baby spinach, arugula, lettuces, beet greens, pea shoots, and more each year in its current 1.5-acre facility. The new spinach greenhouse will allow the team to take a bigger bite out of the local baby greens market.
“Baby spinach makes up 40% of the baby greens market in the United States, while local, pesticide-free, year-round spinach is practically unheard of in most of the U.S.,” said Serdar Mizrakci, the Element Farms founder and CEO. “We have served customers in New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania for the last three years and understand their insatiable appetite for a tender, safe, and premium baby spinach product. Our new greenhouse will serve that demand.”
Element Farms uses proprietary technology and processes to grow its greens in hydroponic ponds in glass greenhouses. Seeding, growing, harvesting, packing, and delivery happens in a continuous cycle, and produce is harvested in an average of 14 days versus 30 in the field. The company eschews the unnecessary energy expenditures found in many controlled environmental agriculture ventures and instead relies on solar energy to power most of its plants’ growth. This sustainable approach is not only good for the planet, but for customers too because it is a cost-effective way to grow.
With the completion of its spinach greenhouse in late 2021, Element Farms will be on track to grow and ship 2 million pounds of greens per year. But the second Lafayette greenhouse is just one part of Element Farms’ growth plan. The company is currently pursuing greenhouse projects in other states.
Element Farms