The benefits container farming has for grocery stores might surprise you! From attracting new customers to increasing revenues to keeping people safe, there’s no end to the advantage of a container farm. The Kroger Company knows this too. That’s why it’s adding 15 container farms to some of its stores. In this article, you’ll learn just some benefits of container farming for grocery stores.
For more information, please visit what is a container farm.
Did you know 58% of consumers seek out locally sourced fruits and vegetables? Container farming lets you grow organic produce for your grocery store onsite. You can’t get any more local than that! When customers can get their fresh locally grown produce from the same store they can get all their other food, they’ll be more likely to shop at your store.
Fresh produce accounts for half of all foodborne illness outbreaks in the United States. By January 15 this year, 167 people had been infected with e. coli by lettuce and other leafy greens. E. coli outbreaks from lettuce are usually due to the lettuce having traces of feces stuck in the leaves. Luckily, when your grocery store grows its own food with a container farm, this isn’t going to happen since you have full control over the growing environment.
Consumers from all age groups are willing to pay more for organic produce. Plus, they’re also more willing to pay more for local foods, mostly because they perceive it as higher quality. When you grow your grocery store’s own food with a container farm, you’re able to sell local organic produce. And this produce is able to have a higher price tag than its imported rivals.
When food is grown outdoors, it’s subject to seasons, natural disasters, unpredictable weather, pest infestations and disease outbreaks. This means harvests aren’t always reliable. Plus, when food has to be shipped, it’s at the mercy of the food supply chain, which can be interrupted by any number of unpredictable events, like pandemics. When you’re supplementing your produce stock with your own freshly grown food, you’ll never have to worry about running out of lettuce again!
Container farming uses 90% less water and 100% less soil and pesticides. Since we’re facing widespread water and land shortages, and pesticides are dangerous, container farms are an environmentally friendly choice! This makes your business much more attractive to eco-conscious consumers. Plus, 37% of customers are willing to pay 5% more for sustainably sourced products, so you can charge more too.
Having a container farm gives you the opportunity to start new money-making endeavors. You can add salad bars, pop-up restaurants and ready-made meals to your grocery store using food from the container farm. As a result, you’ll provide a new service while making extra money! A Whole Foods in Brooklyn already started using a hydroponic farm to make extra money.
A container farm also helps you broaden your selection of produce. Since many herbs don’t travel well, it can be hard to include them in your grocery store selection. With a container farm, you can grow exotic and luxury crops for your customers. With an expanded inventory, you’ll be the go-to for local foodies.
Do you want to make more money by attracting new customers and selling a premium product? You can achieve all that and more by adding a Pure Greens Container Farm to your grocery store. If you’re interested in learning more, visit our website or call 602-753-3469.
Container farms are becoming increasingly popular within the controlled environment agriculture industry. These farms are usually vertical farming systems installed inside a shipping container. So why are so many manufacturers and businesses using this model? And what makes LettUs Grow’s DROP & GROW container farm special?
Benefits to people
Container farms allow people to connect their community to produce that is healthy and fresh - where food travels for minutes, not miles. Since containers are transportable and often don’t need planning permission, you can easily slot a vertical farm into urban areas or farmlands where they can best serve the surrounding area. This could be in a supermarket car park, or the yard of a local community centre.
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Container farms allow people to meet the rising demand for local, sustainable food. DROP & GROW container farms are user-friendly and powered by Ostara, our software platform - so there’s no need to have any growing experience. With Ostara, growers can easily control, automate and manage their farm via a tablet device. Lighting cycles, nutrient levels and temperatures can all be automated, adjusted, and monitored remotely. Ostara also allows you to easily export important growing data.
Benefits to the planet
Growing in a container farm allows you to grow closer to the consumer, which reduces food miles and also food waste. This is due to reducing the amount of time a crop travels to reach a plate, but also because serving smaller communities allows the growers to more accurately grow based on demand. Growing within a contained, controlled environment also means there is no need to use pesticides.
Growing in a vertical farming system allows you to grow more food in a much smaller area. For example, vertical farms can yield twenty times more lettuce than agricultural fields. This lessens the environmental impact of food and also takes pressure from our soils - one-third of the world’s arable soils are degraded and it can take a thousand years for just one centimetre of topsoil to form.
The DROP & GROW container farm uses LettUs Grow’s aeroponic technology, which uses less water in both outdoor and hydroponic growing. Precise control means growers can also use the exact amount of fertiliser and nutrients needed for specific crops, preventing over-application.
Benefits to profit
DROP & GROW container farms have been designed to make sustainable farming a sustainable business. In a container farm, the harvesting season never ends, so growers will receive consistent income and projections. We work with customers to ensure they have secured their market and conduct economic modelling on their behalf.
There are also benefits in the installation and delivery of a container farm, since they are less expensive to design and build than a bespoke installation. Using a shipping container with standard dimensions eliminates construction work, such as installing floor drains, moving structural walls or rewiring electrics inside an existing building. This also means there is minimal work needed to be done on the customer site. Transport is also a huge benefit, as a container is a universal size that can be transported globally, with infrastructure in place to do this.
Benefits to plants
The aeroponic technology inside DROP & GROW allows you to grow up to twice as fast as hydroponics. Aeroponics uses mist to irrigate crops and mimics the natural air pockets found in natural soil systems, so boosts access to oxygen. This results in healthier plant roots and faster growth rates. Growers can access precision control, tailored to each grow bed, allowing the conditions to be optimised for specific crops. Growers can also access crop recipes, which have been developed by our team of expert growers. This means that factors such lighting and irrigation cycles have been pre-defined to ensure the best conditions for the plants.
Want to talk to our business development team about how a container farm could benefit you? Get in touch here.
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