AeroFarms on Friday said its commercial farm in Newark will be dedicated exclusively to research & development operations.
The indoor vertical farming giant said that, combined with its other R&D and engineering prototyping facility, it will now have over 100,000 square feet of dedicated R&D space to advance projects on next-generation crops and indoor vertical farming solutions.
AeroFarms said it will transfer its New Jersey commercial production over the coming months to its commercial farm in Danville, Virginia, which is expanding rapidly to meet increased consumer demand with the No. 1 brand nationwide at retail for microgreens.
“AeroFarms is known for its plant science and R&D expertise, and we are fielding so many opportunities to work on future crops to expand our offerings for customers,” AeroFarms co-founder and CEO David Rosenberg said. “The dedicated focus to R&D for our farms in our global headquarters campus in Newark builds on the great momentum of our recent grand opening of our cutting-edge R&D indoor vertical farm AgX in Abu Dhabi, UAE, which garnered over a half-billion media impressions and increased demand from interested partners.”
Rosenberg added: “Our Newark commercial farm team has been instrumental in helping establish our leading brand and product offering, and we are deeply appreciative of their contributions. We are very mindful about finding potential new roles within AeroFarms as well as future career placement services for our impacted workforce as we make this transition.”
Through its world-class team and expertise, AeroFarms has a long history of both public and private R&D partnerships to help drive the broader agriculture industry forward. Today, AeroFarms works closely with the USDA, Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research, Hortifrut, Cargill, AB InBev, Nokia Bell Labs, Silal Foods and others, working on longer-term solutions for their respective challenges in agriculture.
In Danville, Virginia, AeroFarms continues to scale its commercial growing from the world’s largest aeroponic smart indoor vertical farm, servicing growing customer demand from key partners like Ahold Delhaize, Amazon Fresh, Compass Group, FreshDirect, Harris Teeter, HMart, Marcus BP, Momofuku Noodle Bars, ShopRite, the Fresh Market, Walmart, Weee! and Whole Foods Market.
