AppHarvest Opens New 15-Acre Indoor Salad Greens Facility

By Greenhouse Grower

Indoor vegetable and fruit operation AppHarvest has opened its new Berea, KY, 15-acre high-tech indoor salad greens farm that features a touchless growing system with autonomous harvesting, according to Greenhouse Grower. A $30 million loan from marketing partner Mastronardi Produce was secured by the AppHarvest Berea farm to fund the project. Consistent with its strategy to secure attractive long-term financing for its assets, AppHarvest also intends to pursue sale-leaseback financing for its Berea farm.

At 15 acres (or nearly 654,000 square feet), the AppHarvest Berea farm is expected to be the world’s largest high-tech indoor farm for autonomously harvested salad greens with a cutting-edge touchless growing system. The hands-off system is automated from pre-seeding to packaging including onsite washing to help improve both food safety and efficiency for washed-and-ready-to-eat salad packs. The farm is designed to grow about 35 million lettuce plants at a time, which go from seed to maturity in about three to four weeks, depending on variety.

The AppHarvest Berea controlled environment agriculture (CEA) facility was proclaimed officially open last week as Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, U.S. Representative Andy Barr, and AppHarvest Founder & CEO Jonathan Webb used handheld harvesters to cut down a strip of crispy and juicy greens grown in the farm’s touchless system. The farm is opening on a phased approach, beginning with 5 acres then bringing on additional productive acreage over time. AppHarvest began first commercial shipments of salad greens earlier this month.