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Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

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Japan Vertical Farm Pioneer Spread Hits 100 Million Lettuce Serving Milestone

While the vertical farming industry in the US continues to struggle, longtime Japanese precision agriculture pioneer Spread continues to pump out heads of lettuce in its fifteen years in operation, hitting the 100 million pack milestone this year. The company, which raised $30 million in funding last year, sells its produce in approximately 5,000 retail stores, as well as food service and ready-made meal operators across Japan, according to a release sent to The Spoon.

The company’s founder, Shinji Inada, started the company in 2007 after a career in fresh produce distribution, citing a concern about a decrease in agriculture production due to climate change. While vertical farming has been around in Japan since the 1980s, Inada noticed that neither the quality nor price of “plant factory” produce was on par with traditionally farmed agriculture, so he developed a vertical farm system to produce his lettuce brand called Vegetus.

Since then, his company has continued developing its vertical farming technology and launched its Techno Farm concept in 2018, which uses automated cultivation, precise environmental control technology, and an IoT-based cultivation management system called ‘Techno Farm Cloud.’ The company’s TechoFarm system is used in three locations today: Techno Farm Fukuroi, Techno Farm Narita, and Techno Farm Keihanna.

Since its fundraise last year, the company has been exploring expansion into strawberries and the production of plant-based meat. The company has also been expanding its selection of lettuce varieties, launching a ” Chigiri ” product in 2021, which has its leaves removed during production, and launching a new European lettuce variety, “Stick,” this spring.

Lunchbox Acquires Online Restaurant Marketplace Spread

Online ordering platform Lunchbox announced today it has acquired Spread, an online marketplace that aims to offer both restaurants and customers an alternative to Grubhub, DoorDash, and other major third-party delivery services.

Lunchbox’s online ordering software will power the transactions, while Spread will handle the deliveries. Pickup options will also be available for customers.

NYC-based delivery marketplace Spread was created to connect customers and restaurants without charging the former hefty commission fees, as third-party delivery services like Grubhub do. Restaurants that use the Spread platform can send promo codes and weekly specials directly to customers, who are then directed back to the restaurant’s own website to order. Spread charges a flat fee to restaurants (usually $1 or $2), rather than the typical percentage third-party delivery marketplaces use. 

Until recently, that percentage could reach as high as 30 percent per transaction, a figure that gutted restaurants’ already dwindling margins in 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic shut dining rooms down. Many cities in the U.S. have since introduced caps on commission fees (some permanently), though the numbers still hover around 15 to 20 percent. 

Since the technical logistics of delivery are expensive and complicated, most restaurants can’t afford to to manage their own operation and more or less have to use Grubhub et. al. to reach customers. This is the cycle Spread and Lunchbox are hoping to break with their newfound partnership. 

The acquisition will also widen Lunchbox’s potential customer base to include independent, single-location establishments and mom-and-pop restaurants. (The company’s platform currently services multi-unit chains.)

The acquisition comes at time when more companies are emerging claiming to be an alternative to the major third-party delivery services. Companies like Ritual, Fare, and Inhousedelivery.com make claims similar to Lunchbox/Spread about reducing restaurants’ reliance on those services.

At the same time, third-party delivery services are offering their own alternatives to high fee caps. Grubhub debuted a “commission-free” option earlier this year, and DoorDash launched a tiered pricing structure for such fees. While these services come with their fair share of fine print, they’re nonetheless evidence that third-party delivery isn’t going to take the competition lying down.

CEA Grower Spread Says Its Vertical Farming Tech Is Ready for ‘Mass Production’ of Strawberries

Kyoto, Japan-based controlled environment agriculture (CEA) company Spread said this week it has developed technology that will let it mass-produce strawberries in a vertical farm setting.

Spread is “old guard” when it comes to indoor farming, having completed its first large-scale vertical farm in 2007. Since 2018, the company has also operated its Techno Farm, which uses robotics to automate much of the grow process for plants. Up to now, Spread has grown leafy greens inside these environments. And like a few others in the vertical farming space, the company is now applying its technology and learnings from that process to growing strawberries. 

Strawberries still top the Environmental Working Group’s “Dirty Dozen” list, which means they contain the highest levels pesticides of any fruit. They are also extremely perishable and prone to damage during the shipping distribution process. That makes farms like the ones Spread operates suitable grow environments, since vertical farms are inherently pest-free already and typically situated closer to consumers. Spread’s Techno Farm, for example, is located in Kansai Science City, which sits at the intersection of the Kyoto, Osaka, and Nara prefectures in western Japan.

Strawberries are in high-demand in Japan as in other parts of the world, and Spread joins companies like Plenty, Oishii, and AppHarvest have already said they are planning to grow the fruit in a CEA environment. Oishii also grows the über-premium Omakase berry — normally only available in a specific region of Japan for a short time — inside its facility. 

Spread said this week it is considering distribution of its strawberries to Europe and North America as well as Asia. The company is also working on grains, mushrooms, and other fruits as potential future crops on its farms.