Fresh Direct Stands Up for Vertical Farming

Fresh Direct, the UK’s leading provider of foodservice fresh produce, has partnered with a third British vertical farming business, GrowUp Farms, as it continues to support this innovative technology.

All Fresh Direct’s vertical farming partners are British and cover a wide range of herbs, salad and baby leaves, providing year-round access to these crops, helping address food security concerns and weather-related issues with harvests that have caused significant challenges for conventional growers over the past few years.

The latest supplier to partner with Fresh Direct is certified B Corp, GrowUp, which produces salad leaves at its modern vertical farm, designed to reduce its carbon emissions. The farm, which is powered by renewable energy from the bioenergy plant next to the facility, does not cause soil erosion, and produces long-lasting products year-round in the UK, which cuts down food waste and lorry miles. GrowUp also aims to use 90% less water when fully operational and, because the farm is a completely enclosed process, requires no pesticides, fungicides or weedkiller.

In addition, Fresh Direct’s development chefs rigorously tested the new products and found that, as well as the sustainability benefits, the produce significantly outperformed conventional leaves for quality and freshness.

Paul Nieduszynski, CEO at Sysco GB, said: “Vertical farming has made some fantastic strides forward in the past couple of years, and has become a much more practical solution, helping to support conventionally grown produce. We want to support British agriculture in all its forms and have been an early adopter of this technology, which gives us a year-round solution with enviable quality.

“Adding GrowUp to our portfolio of vertical growers gives our customers even greater access to high quality, locally grown produce with no concerns about the weather, seasonal changes or quality.”

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