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Amatelas Farm
Courtesy of Oishii · Press kit, editorial use (opens oishii.com)

Amatelas Farm

by OishiiUS

ScalingStage 5 of 5

Operating and supplying grocery retailers.

Updated 4 Jun 2024Checked 25 Sep0 updates this week

Milestones

Next · Expansion of grocery distribution
  1. Omakase Berry launched in New York2018Complete.
  2. Amatelas Farm opensJun 2024Complete.
  3. Expansion of grocery distributionNowCurrent milestone.

Most important updates

  • 4 Jun 2024

Current obstacles

  • Energy cost of artificial lightLED lights and climate control are the biggest costs; profit depends on premium prices and cheap power.

Physics limits

  • Plants turn only a few percent of light into foodPhotosynthesis stores only about 1–3% of light energy as sugar. Indoors that light is made from electricity, so every berry carries a large electricity bill that sunlight provides for free outdoors.
  • Most lamp power ends up as heat to removeEven the best LEDs turn only about half their electricity into light, and nearly all the light becomes heat on the leaves. Cooling it away adds a second large energy cost.

How it works

3 parts
Robot arms moving along a rack of strawberry plants at an Oishii farm, where robots help pick and check the fruit
Robot arms moving along a rack of strawberry plants at an Oishii farm, where robots help pick and check the fruitCourtesy of Oishii · Press kit, editorial use (opens oishii.com)
Grow

Tall racks under LED light

Strawberry plants grow on stacked racks indoors under LEDs, with light, temperature, humidity and CO2 held steady all year.

Pollinate

Bees work indoors

Bumblebees live in the growing rooms and pollinate the flowers, which is what turns flowers into well-shaped berries.

Automate

Robots watch and pick

Robots move along the racks to monitor plants and help harvest, cutting the labour of tending tall indoor rows.

Update log

1 update

Tue 4 Jun 2024

  • Minor: PressManufacturing

About Oishii

The team behind Amatelas Farm

Oishii

Vertical-farmed strawberries, Omakase Berry

New Jersey vertical farm growing Japanese strawberry varieties and tomatoes indoors under LEDs, using bees and robots. Its Amatelas Farm in Phillipsburg, NJ is one of the largest indoor strawberry farms.

  • Sells premium Omakase and Koyo berries in US grocery chains.
  • Uses bees to pollinate indoors, a hard problem for indoor fruit.
  • Focuses on high-value fruit after many leafy-green vertical farms failed.

oishii.com (opens oishii.com)Company profile →

Founded
201610 yrs
Headquarters
United States
Status
Private
Valuation
private
Works in
AgricultureIndoor farming
Coverage
1 program · 3 updateslatest 4 Jun 2024checked 25 Sep
People
Hiroki KogaCo-founder & CEO
Primer