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Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) has signed a joint venture (JV) agreement with AeroFarms, a US-based commercial developer in vertical farming, to establish a new company in Riyadh to build and operate indoor vertical farms in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.
The agreement will optimise the utilisation of natural resources, including water and agricultural lands, through the implementation of indoor vertical farming, resulting in higher yields and using up to 95 percent less water compared to traditional field farming, PIF said in a statement.
The partnership is anticipated to enable sustainable, local sourcing of high-quality crops all year round, grown using AeroFarms’ proprietary smart agriculture technology (AgTech) platform, which helps solve broader supply chain needs in the industry.
The JV plans to build and operate several farms across the region in the next few years, the statement said.
The first farm in Saudi Arabia is likely to be the largest indoor vertical farm of its kind in the MENA region and will have an annual production capacity of up to 1.1 million kilogrammes of agricultural crops.
Majed AlAssaf, Head of Consumer Goods and Retail, MENA Investments Division at PIF, 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.”
On Tuesday, Zawya had reported that UAE-based agtech startup Pure Harvest signed a strategic partnership pact with Saudi Arabia's National Agricultural Development Company (Nadec) to deliver a large-scale national food security project.
(Writing by D Madhura; Editing by Anoop Menon)
