Orlando is now the city with the highest production volume vertical farm in the Southeast thanks to Kalera (Website) opening a second facility here this week.
The new facility has the capacity to supply millions of heads of leafy greens per year.
The construction process, which involved retrofitting an existing building, took six months.
The company grows the produce using hydroponics, utilizes cleanroom technology and processes to eliminate the use of chemicals and remove exposure to pathogens, uses non-GMO seeds, consumes 95% less water compared to field farming, and uses plant and data science-driven methods.
Kalera is able to deliver product to customers within hours of harvest rather than days or weeks because it places the vertical farms where the demand is.
Its first vertical farm built in 2018 called the HyCube is situated on the premises of the Orlando World Center Marriott. The food grown there was delivered to and used by the hotel. This first location served as a model illustrating the place of vertical farming in the sustainable food movement.
The company says it is now the industry leader in "the local farming ag-tech revolution" fter perfecting and fine-tuning its technology according to Kalera CEO Daniel Malechuk.
The produce is "fresher, boast a longer shelf life and higher nutritional value, and are grown locally with consistently high yields," says Kalera Chief Technology Officer Cristian Toma.
Kalera will build additional vertical farms over the next few years. The company says it has a streamlined design and construction process enabling it to quickly scale and expand.
“Right now, we are leading the way in defining what pick-to-plate means for the future," says Malechuk.
Fun Fact: The first time the company ever vended at a farmers market was at the Downtown Orlando Indoor Farmers Market we produced in 2019.
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