Edible Flowers In; United Fresh Winners and BrightFarms' $55M

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Friday, July 06, 2018

Jen Polanz Subscribe
Inside Grower
COMING UP THIS WEEK:

Veg Ghse: 201 New Projects
Winners From United Fresh
Edible Flowers Hot
BrightFarms Raises $55M
CDC Traces E. coli Outbreak




New Global Veg Greenhouse Project Numbers

Vegetable greenhouse operations worldwide have announced 201 new projects or funding plans in recent months, totaling more than 10,000 acres of greenhouse space, according to Gary Hickman of Cuesta Roble Consulting.

Of these projects, 60 are in the United States spread throughout 32 states. “The total U.S.A. planned area is 642 hectares (1,586 acres), which, if completed, would be more than a 70% increase to the current U.S.A. vegetable area,” Gary writes in a release detailing the global growth. “In Canada, 14 new announced projects have been found, totaling 253 hectares (625 acres). That would be a 16% increase in total Canadian greenhouse vegetable area.”

Mexico, he adds, has nine new projects proposed at 332 hectares or 820 acres, for a 10% increase in total area. The largest growth acreage wise outside the U.S. is Russia, which announced more than 2,500 acres from 23 projects, for a 34% increase in currently known greenhouse vegetable area. Gary says that’s three times what was projected for last year.

The July 2018 listing of all 201 proposed greenhouse vegetable projects is available for a fee from Cuesta Roble Consulting as an emailed excel file. Click here for the link.Gary also offers a complete listing of the more than 2,200 known current world greenhouse vegetable growers in 106 countries, called the 2018 World Growers Listing.

United Fresh Announces 7 Innovation Award Winners

United Fresh 2018 wrapped up June 27, and the organization announced the seven winners of the Innovation Award, which were selected from a total of 36 contestants across seven categories. The winners are:

Best New Food Safety Solution: Natures Natural Solutions LLC for the Industrial Sized Food Freshness Card

Best New Fruit Product: Apeel Sciences for Apeel

Best New Packaging: Mucci Farms for CuteCumber Poppers (pictured)

Best New Packing/Processing Equipment: Volm Companies Inc. for the Volmpack Pouch Bagger

Best New Vegetable Product: Mastronardi Produce/SUNSET for the SUNSET Aloha Peppers

Best New Indoor Growing Technology: IUNU for Luna (an AI solution for indoor growers)

Best New Field Technology: Food-Origins for Food Origins Data Collection Platform

     
CuteCumbers from Mucci Farms won Best New Packaging at UnitedFresh. 

Most of the winners are pretty self-explanatory, but the Apeel one piqued my interest, so I asked for more details. Here’s what it is, from the fact sheet about the product: “Apeel is shipped to farmers and suppliers as a powder. When mixed with water and applied to the surface of harvested produce, Apeel leaves behind an exceptionally thin layer of tasteless plant material on the outside of the fruit that naturally slows water loss and oxidation, the primary factors that cause spoilage.” Right now it’s being used on avocados, but, since it is colorless, odorless and tasteless, it could be used on any produce.

“This year’s Innovation Awards winners won from a field of excellent and qualified competitors,” says United Fresh’s vice president of convention and industry collaboration John Toner. “The exceptional creativity of these seven winners helped them stand out at United Fresh 2018, the home of fresh produce innovation.”

Find out more about the show at www.unitedfreshshow.org

Edible Flowers Rising in Popularity

Did you know dianthus flowers are edible? OK, you probably did, but I did not. That is one of the many things I learned recently while emailing with Nathalie Dreifelds of the Vineland Research & Innovation Center in Vineland Station, Ontario, Canada. Vineland has been researching customer preferences related to edible flowers to help growers better position themselves in the marketplace after hearing that Whole Foods named floral flavors the No. 1 consumer food trend for 2018.

To that end, Nathalie sent us this:

Edible flowers are surging in popularity as evidenced through research conducted by Alexandra Grygorczyk, PhD, Vineland’s Research Scientist, Consumer Insights. “In 2015, we surveyed consumers on their preference for edible garden plants (strawberries, raspberries, gooseberries) and also included an edible flower option in the study,” said Grygorczyk. “We found 35% of respondents were highly interested in edible flowers and would prefer purchasing edible flowers for their garden over more traditional plants such as strawberries and raspberries.”  

 
Dianthus flowers are one of several edible flowers growing in popularity with chefs and consumers.

Freeman Herbs, a Beamsville, ON-based grower and distributor of fresh herbs in Canada, partnered with Vineland in 2017 to gain a better understanding of the edible flowers market. Following Freeman Herbs’ production trials on over 25 types of edible flowers screening for ease of production, blooming and compact shape for container production, 10 plants were selected for profiling by Vineland’s trained sensory panel and more than 200 Greater Toronto Area consumers.

“We were able to segment consumers in two groups: the bold flavour fans (56%) favouring strong aromas and spicy tastes; and the smooth texture lovers (44%) preferring smooth textured and subtly flavoured flowers,” said Grygorczyk. Results also showed edible flowers such as nasturtium and candy pop mint should be marketed to the bold flavour fan group while impatiens and dianthus are of interest to smooth texture lovers.

“These research findings have been instrumental in outlining our business plan to expand into the potted edible flowers market,” said Jeff Nickerson, General Manager, Freeman Herbs. Freeman Herbs will be launching edible flowers in four-inch pots in the produce aisle in 2019.

You can find out more about Vineland Research and Innovation Centre and its research topics here.

BrightFarms Secures $55M

The expansion of BrightFarms continues with $55 million more in equity financing led by Cox Enterprises. The company is a communications, media and automotive services provider, and it was joined by existing BrightFarms investors Catalyst Investors, WP Global Partners and NGEN Partners, according to BusinessWire.

BrightFarms, as you may know from our February 2018 Inside Grower cover story, has an ambitious expansion plan to start 15 more growing operations in three years. Since I wrote that story, the company already announced a new location in Abilene, Texas. That makes five, along with Rochelle, Illinois, Culpeper County, Virginia, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and Wilmington, Ohio.

It’s interesting that a mostly communications-focused company made the investment. Cox Enterprises was started over 100 years ago by James M. Cox, who purchased the Dayton Evening News (later the Dayton Daily News). The company grew from there and today it includes a global portfolio that also includes Autotrader and Kelley Blue Book. So why invest in a greenhouse company?

In 2007, the enterprise launched Cox Conserves, a national sustainability program where some of the goals include sending zero waste to the landfill by 2024 and to be carbon and water neutral by 2044. It’s invested more than $100 million toward sustainability and conservation projects, and now BrightFarms is one of those opportunities, says CFO Dallas Clement.

“Since our founding in 1898, Cox has embraced innovative, game-changing businesses in their earliest stages like radio, television, cable TV and broadband. BrightFarms presents a unique opportunity to reshape agriculture production and drive positive environmental change by growing in local, controlled environment agriculture farms,” he says in the BusinessWire release. “We are excited about the opportunity to support BrightFarms’ growth as it scales into a national brand.”

CDC Traces Source of E. coli in Romaine

The CDC says the E. coli outbreak traced to romaine lettuce from the Yuma, Arizona, region appears to be over as of June 28. Tragically, five people died from the outbreak in Arkansas, California, Minnesota (2) and New York. All told, 210 people became ill, with 96 having to be hospitalized, 27 of those developing a type of kidney failure called hemolytic uremic syndrome.

The official word on the CDC’s website says: “CDC laboratory testing identified the outbreak strain of E. coli O157:H7 in canal water samples taken from the Yuma growing region. FDA is continuing to investigate the outbreak to learn more about how the E. coli bacteria could have entered the water and ways this water could have contaminated romaine lettuce.”

You can read the details here.

As always, feel free to email me at jpolanz@ballpublishing.com with comments, questions, news and views.

Until next time,

Jennifer Polanz
Editor-at-Large
Inside Grower


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