Florida based vertical farm operator Kalera has finished the first phase of construction at the Changi Logistics Center, a multi-layer vertical farm in Singapore which promises to revolutionize how the country sources its fresh greens.

"The new indoor farm will change consumption of locally-grown and harvested greens in Singapore as we know it," Henner Schwarz, Chief Commercial Officer at Kalera said in a statement. "We'll be producing 500,000 kilograms of greens each year, which can be harvested right before consumption, resulting in higher nutritional value, less food waste and reduced CO2 emissions. We're expecting the first harvest in the third quarter."

Kerstin Köhler, Country Manager for Singapore at Kalera added that "the new farm will offer holistic support to Singapore's long-term food security plan, which gained added significance during the COVID-19 pandemic." 

"By changing the way food is grown and eaten, our Singapore farm, paired with our R&D center, will continue to drive the global urban farming revolution," he said.  

This initiative is made possible through the Singapore Food Agency's (SFA) 30 x 30 Express Grant, which supports the local agri-industry to produce 30% of Singapore's nutritional needs locally and sustainably by 2030. 

The grant will help to ramp up local production of leafy vegetables through Kalera's patented “Dryponics” cultivation method which keeps the plants alive with roots intact and allows consumers to harvest the plants just before consumption for better-tasting greens.

"In our 50-foot-tall indoor farm we use a fully automated advanced farming system that covers the seeding to harvesting process, has full climate control, and enables compact, modular and high-quality plant growth," Köhler added.

Kalera continues to expand and will open its Denver farm in March 2022, with four additional farms in Seattle, Columbus, Ohio, Honolulu and St. Paul, Minn., currently under development.

Vertical farming has gained momentum, with a variety of companies, from the retail giant Walmart to fruit markets like Oppy, getting involved in recent months.