You have taken the Dutch greenhouse model to countries like Kazakhstan and Georgia. What drove you to start operations in less conventional markets?
FoodVentures was established around ten years ago when we invested EUR 5 million of personal funds into a Dutch lettuce greenhouse in Ukraine. fIt baffled me how the Dutch greenhouse concept was so well established in the Netherlands, but quasi-unknown in many other markets. Having witnessed how a local Ukrainian grower was producing roses at 70% of the capacity found in the Netherlands and was still being profitable, I immediately saw the huge pool of opportunity in these frontier markets. As such, after our first successful venture, we continued by expanding into Georgia and Kazakhstan. As we have started doing larger projects, we were able to prove that you can successfully use high-tech solutions even in low-tech environments.
What are some of the specificities of your greenhouses and how do they translate into your business model?
We are farmers at heart, and we believe in supporting farmers with the right tools and knowledge to help them become more efficient and scale up their business in a profitable manner. By employing the right tools, we make sure high-tech farming is possible in all environmental conditions and, more importantly, we align with the investors' vision of creating fruitful projects in any geography. Unlike other technology providers who simply sell a project and then move to the next one, we are interested in farming for profit in any place we set up our business.
We are using semi-closed greenhouse models where the irrigation is recycled. For example, we spend 95% less water per kilogram of tomatoes compared to traditional farming. In addition, we produce in proximity to cities to reduce food miles and we reuse CO2 as a fertilizer for our plants.
For instance, we are transforming the flare gas that comes from the oil fields in Kazakhstan into heat and electricity to farm vegetables. Moreover, we do not use pesticides. Instead, we introduce populations of beneficial insects inside the enclosed environment of the greenhouse, thus creating a mini natural ecosystem. In a nutshell, our business model has a negative carbon footprint.
You currently have facilities in a variety of places. What are your plans for further expansion?
Our expansion plans include entering the Middle Eastern market, where we were pleasantly surprised to see a high degree of interest towards our greenhouse systems. The supply chain shortages caused by the pandemic prompted the need to strengthen the local production, especially in Saudi Arabia, where there is a huge support for local farming. Besides bringing the technology per se, we are working with a variety of Dutch seed suppliers while also signing sales contracts with regional supermarkets in order to have a smooth journey from soil to shelf.
What have been the main challenges that you had to tackle of recent, especially considering the war in Ukraine?
Luckily, the site in Ukraine is still operating, despite all the issues we came across since the war had started one year ago. We are currently facing challenges due to electricity shortages. During this winter, we had to slow down the production, but, as warmer days have emerged, we have been able to get it back on line again. Besides these practical shortcomings, we are also struggling with the brain drain that resulted from the war: a number of very skilled workers have left the country. Honestly, this exodus is the issue that concerns us the most at the moment.
How do you see the future development of greenhouses and what role do you want FoodVentures to play in this transformation?
I believe that we, as an industry, should advertise more the ways in which we are trying to change the world of tomorrow. Having such a proven technology, which can transform the waste of other sectors into safe local food is truly amazing. There is a natural overlap between the industries that produce CO2 and waste heat and the greenhouses that use it to grow food, so I am convinced we should leverage this. Although vertical farms have their own benefits, creating an artificial environment takes a lot of energy, the electricity per kilogram being two and a half times higher than in our way off farming. I am a strong believer in a horizontal, protected system where we optimize the natural factors to obtain fresh vegetables all year-round. Open field crops will continue to exist in the future, but vine crops that have a long cycle of harvesting can definitely be integrated in high-tech, soilless greenhouses that use recycled water.