This Urban Farm Grows Strawberries in Shipping Containers in Central Paris
Agricool cultivates juicy berries using aeroponics.
Agricool is a Parisian urban agriculture tech start-up that recently raised $28 million to scale its business: growing strawberries in reclaimed shipping containers in central Paris using vertical farming methods. Since the plants are cultivated using aeroponics — that is, by spraying a mist of water and nutrients on the plants’ exposed roots (as opposed to the plants growing in soil) — their process uses 90 percent less water than conventional agriculture. Pesticides aren’t needed because they grow in a controlled environment, and their carbon footprint is almost nonexistent because the transportation radius is less than 20 kilometers. Additionally, they claim to be 120 times more productive than traditional, soil-based agriculture, and their LED lights are powered by renewable energy.
Founded in 2015 by Gonzague Gru and Guillaume Fourdinier — two friends who grew up on farms in the French countryside — Agricool’s principles are based on sustainability without compromising profitability. Furthermore, their business model can be imitated anywhere. Proof of their scalability is that they operate a strawberry container in Dubai. With their latest round of investments, they are planning to add about 100 containers to their current fleet by 2021.
Their strawberries can be purchased at Monoprix supermarkets, as well as La Grande Epicerie de Paris, one of the city’s most exclusive food halls.
Shipping container farming is new trend here in united states. Lots of farmer use it just because of below benefits.
The most important benefit of using repurposed container as farms are:
– Containers are modular and easy to move from one place to other.
– Containers are compact and self-contained.
– Used containers are affordable.
– Prices of used shipping containers continue to be driven down because of high competition.
News letter please – Modern Farmer
Good day, we are interested in this method of farming. Please let me know if you have this product in South Africa and if not, how do I go about building a Agricool Container.
Please advise.
Regards
These are the types of innovative applications that can easily inspire various industries to utilize mobile containers to advance productivity and reduce cost. The design is sleek and modern which is an added benefit to a property as an architectural statement. Amazing work all around, great article.
Good day, we are interested in this method of farming. Please let me know if you have this product in South Africa and if not, how do I go about building a Agricool Container.
Please advise.