News

Pure Harvest Smart Farms and PlanTFarm Join Forces to Create the World’s First “Omnibus” Smart Farming Solution

Agtech Innovators Pure Harvest Smart Farms and PlanTFarm Join Forces to Create the World’s First “Omnibus” Smart Farming Solution

Pure Harvest Smart Farms has entered a joint venture partnership with PlanTFarm to deploy the Korean company’s highly efficient, proprietary vertical farming solutions in new markets, together creating the world’s first integrated high-tech hybrid greenhouse and vertical farming solutions provider, competitively offering an unmatched portfolio of over 100 sustainably-grown fruits & vegetables products.

Pure Harvest Smart Farms, a leading technology-enabled agribusiness, and PlanTFarm, one of the world’s largest vertical farming solutions providers, announced today that they will embark on a joint venture to design, build and operate indoor vertical farms in the Middle East and North Africa region, leveraging proprietary technology provided by PlanTFarm. The arrangement is
supported by IMM Investment, the largest shareholder in PlanTFarm.

Commenting on today’s announcement, Sky Kurtz, Founder & Chief Executive of Pure Harvest Smart Farms, said “We pride ourselves on being technology-agnostic – seeking the ‘best tool for the job’, so long as we achieve our mission of farming high-quality, affordable, sustainably-grown fresh fruits & vegetables for our customers. By partnering with PlanTFarm, pairing its innovative vertical farming technology offering together with our own large-scale hybrid growing systems, we now have the world’s only “omnibus” indoor farming capability – we can partner with retailers, investors and governments to efficiently farm in any form factor, anywhere – wielding over 100 commercially-viable sustainably-grown fresh fruits & vegetables, the broadest commercially proven product range of any indoor farming solutions provider anywhere in the world. Together we are ‘firing the first shot’ in what we see as an inevitable consolidation within the global CEA industry.”

Kang Dae-Hyun, CEO of PlanTFarm, also commented, “We have developed what we believe to be the world’s most efficient vertical farming systems, with over 40 farms currently in operation throughout Korea, producing over 100 different varieties of leafy greens, herbs, spices, berries and mushrooms. We are now actively expanding into new geographies, both direct and via strategic partners. By forming an alliance with Pure Harvest Smart Farms, together we can commercialize our innovative farming solutions throughout the Middle East, enlarging Pure Harvest’s existing CEA ‘toolkit’. PlanTFarm is now joining the fight to overcome the regions’ food security, water conservation, and sustainability challenges.”

Ryan Jaeyun Koo, the Managing Director at IMM and portfolio manager of PlanTFarm commented “IMM invested in PlanTFarm (formerly a division of Farm8) in 2014 seeing immense potential for CEA solutions to meet the world’s future food needs. Based on the accumulated technological expertise, IMM sought to expand to global CEA market and we saw potential opportunities that could arise from partnership with Pure Harvest as two best-in-class CEA solutions merge. This partnership is a win-win-win for the consumers and both companies. Both our solutions and capabilities are complementary and will enable Pure Harvest to accelerate their market growth and expansion.”

Pure Harvest Smart Farms has begun discussions with several interested parties in the Middle East to expand upon its existing product range of tomatoes, leafy greens and strawberries, using PlanTFarm’s growing systems. The Company will now aggressively pursue leads across the MENA region to deploy in-store and warehouse-style systems to complement its mounting pipeline of larger-scale high-tech, hybrid greenhouse growing systems.

Pure Harvest Smart Farms
Pure Harvest Smart Farms is a mission-driven technology-enabled agribusiness headquartered in the UAE, focused on year-round, sustainable production of premium quality fresh fruits & vegetables. As innovators of the Middle East’s first commercialscale, semi-automated high-tech hybrid growing system, Pure Harvest leverages innovative growing technologies & horticultural best practices to enable local-for-local production of affordable, sustainably-grown, clean fresh produce anywhere. Pure Harvest is pioneering controlled-environment agriculture (CEA) in the MENASA region, harnessing technology to tackle some of the region’s biggest problems, including food security, water conservation, economic diversification, and sustainability needs. For more information, please visit www.pureharvest.ae.