UrbanFarmers to set foot in North America

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01.04.2016
Urban Farmers

UrbanFarmers USA Inc., a subsidiary of UrbanFarmers AG, in Switzerland, has announced plans to expand into North America. With its current project portfolio of 10 rooftop sites across the East Coast, the company intends to tap into the growing local food trend and to rapidly expand its rooftop farm franchise overseas.

UrbanFarmers is a global pioneer in rooftop farming and a technology leader in Aquaponics. The company develops and operates rooftop farms growing ultralocal, ultra-fresh produce and fish under its UF brand in cities. Since 2012, UrbanFarmers has been operating UF001 LokDepot in Basel (CH), the worldwide first commercial Aquaponic rooftop farm in Europe, and has just completed construction of UF002 De Schilde, a EUR 2.7m large-scale rooftop farm in The Hague (NL). The company plans to open two more such rooftop farms later this year, to be announced shortly.

The company is now expanding in North America. “We have already signed Letters of Intent with property owners in North America. We can now commence our rooftop-farms project with firm assurance,” says Roman Gaus, CEO UrbanFarmers.

This East Coast cohort of rooftop farms is located on strategic real-estate properties in and around New York City, as well as in densely populated urban areas in the State of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. For off-take, food would be sold directly to the local community, local grocery stores and foodservice accounts. Within a 5-mile radius, the rooftop farms could provide a population of 10m people with access to fresh & healthy food within close distance.

At the March 10 event, dubbed “Tomato meets Big Apple”, the company hosted a private dinner with 35 participants across private & public entities and industry participants in sectors such as food, sustainable investments and real estate. The event presented case studies for a portfolio of potential rooftop farm sites with an aggregate investment amount of USD 30m and annual sales of USD 18m for fish and vegetables. On average, investor return (IRR) for these projects was between 3-8% per annum, in-line with comparable yields of commercial properties.

To operate the rooftop farm franchise, the company will employ a staff of 100 farm-based employees and create about 20 headquarter positions in operations, sales and marketing, based out of its current office in New York City at the Swissnex outpost.

(SK / RAN)

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