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“We are importing strawberry seedlings, transplanting them into our system, and after two months, they will bear fruit. Currently, our two Dubai farms supply more than 450-500 kg of strawberries per week. Strawberry sales are a kind of supplemental income, and at the end of the day, we’re a reseller, so that’s why we started cultivating the space ourselves. It’s just to prove that the technology works, what’s behind it, and use it as a pilot farm,” Aerovertica’s project Manager Harshit Kothari said.
Aerovertica, an Indian agtech company that provides rotating grow towers, has two pilot farms in Dubai. The strawberry farm we visited has a total planting area of 200 square meters, while another farm in Dubai has a total planting area of 1,600 square meters, mainly growing strawberries and edible flowers.
Since the company received government funding, they were able to set up the NGT project, which has been running since November 1, 2021.
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hasit kothari
Local sales of strawberries
On a 200-square-meter site, Aerovertica grows 20,000 strawberries in 180 towers. “In a landscape setup, there are about 10,000 strawberry plants in the same area. This definitely gives us an advantage over other players.” The supply height of the tower is 3.2 meters according to normal standards, and the tower is about 7.8 meters high, fully integrated into the system.
The company currently supplies berries to local supermarkets in Dubai and they have no ambitions to expand further. They are sold in small packages of 200 grams, with an average price of 5-8 dirhams each, or about 1,50-2,25 US dollars.
Pollution is done manually with the help of bumblebees. If certain plants don’t respond well to the system for any reason, they are removed and replaced. The plants are powered by LEDs and receive approximately 12 hours of light per day. According to Harshit, it helps keep costs down because the tower is rotating, and it provides the plants with a fair amount of light, which helps them grow as naturally as possible.
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Available in any size
Supplying any size is not a problem for Aerovertica, but once customers have a farm size in mind, they consider the entire process, so the most efficient sizes and distances can be calculated for optimal yields.
While they’re not ultimately focused on selling their product, the team is gathering multiple data, rollbacks, and system improvements. This can all be (hopefully) blocked and distributed to clients who are starting new projects.
Besides, Aerovertica doesn’t just sell its product and leave it to the customer. “We really want to be close to the customer, monitor and guide them as much as possible. If there might be a problem, we can step in and shut down the system at any time from our headquarters in Dubai. As well as give them remote advice on certain things, because we can Always keep an eye on what’s going on on their farm.”
Click here to view photo report.
Is energy a concern?
At this point, energy costs are not much of an issue for the company as they pay about 4000-5000 EUR per month for energy, which is very much to monitor when selling products to regular offtakers. In future projects, Harshit noted, they hope to research renewable energy so they can take advantage of cheaper options.
For more information:
Project ManagerHarshit Kothari
aerial
LIU 4, Dubai Silicon Oasis
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Tel: +971 568 387 804
e-mail: sales@aerovertica.com
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