Nordic Harvest
Introduction
Nordic Harvest was our first partnership in northern Europe. We completed the first phase of construction, establishing what was Europe's largest indoor vertical farm at the time, and training Nordic Harvest's team to operate it.
They have since taken over operation of the farm. They continue pursuing their mission to reduce the need for farmland in Denmark, creating space for larger forests through the adoption of indoor vertical farming technology.
We still believe that northern Europe is one of the most feasible regions for commercial indoor vertical farming, worldwide. Nordic consumers are willing to pay a premium for sustainable, locally-grown fresh produce.
Building Europe's Largest Vertical Farm
As our debut project in Europe, we're proud to have completed the first phase of construction without any major delays, despite logisitical and social challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
It took eight months from leasing the location to installing the equipment and harvesting the first test crop. We held an opening ceremony to announce the completion, which supercharged Nordic Harvest's launch.
Our plan was to complete the first phase of construction and scale up over the following year. The second phase of construction was planned for 2022 with projections to reach full capacity by 2023.
Implementing New Technology
Back in 2020, this was our most advanced indoor vertical farm, featuring our 6th generation technology. Automated seeding, transplanting, harvesting and cleaning equipments were all specially designed for this project.
As a result, Nordic Harvest required far less manpower than our farms in Asia. It also produced less waste thanks to the introduction of our gel substrate technology, which we implemented for the very first time.
We have been able to improve our new technologies through commercial testing at Nordic Harvest. Our 7th generation technology is more efficient, using less electricity and achieving a better cost-performance ratio.
Training Operators and Technicians
After our engineers finished installing the equipment, the torch was passed to our international project managers. They were trained at YesHealth iFarm in Taiwan, and tasked with passing on our know-how to Nordic Harvest.
We created two essential job roles inside the vertical farm. Operators are responsible for daily operations, planting and harvesting crops. Technicians oversee all processes and monitor the crops throughout their growth cycles.
Through this collaboration, we helped Nordic Harvest to kickstart production and harvest top quality produce from day one. Their team took over the daily operations after less than 12 months of training.
Farm Specs
Location
Copenhagen, Denmark
Purpose
Commercial
Total Growing Area
6,700 m²
Maximum Daily Output
Actual Daily Output
600 kg (full-size lettuce)
N/A
First Harvest
December, 2020
Latest News
August 1, 2021
Scandasia: Danish-Taiwanese farming collaboration
Jesper Hansen, Chief Commercial Officer at YesHealth Group in Taiwan, has played an instrumental role in establishing a business partnership with Danish start-up Nordic Harvest and setting up their first Indoor Vertical Farming (IVF) plant in Copenhagen. Jesper has, aside business planning and marketing, developed vertical farm designs and so far helped raise more than USD $100 million for vertical farming projects across the world... [READ MORE]
December 8, 2020
Fast Company: This vertical farm in Denmark will grow 1,000 tons of local greens a year
If you buy lettuce in the winter in Denmark, it will probably be imported from Spain or Italy—or even Kenya. But a new vertical indoor farm on the outskirts of Copenhagen will soon begin producing 1,000 metric tons of greens a year locally. The Danish company running the farm, in partnership with a Taiwanese tech provider, says that similar farms covering an area the size of 20 soccer fields could fully supply the country’s entire demand for greens... [READ MORE]
December 7, 2020
Businesswire: YesHealth Group and Nordic Harvest Complete First Phase of Construction on Europe’s Largest Vertical Farm
The new Nordic Harvest vertical farm stands 14-stories high in a 7000 sq. meter facility at Copenhagen Markets, on the outskirts of Denmark’s capital. It will be Europe’s largest and most efficient indoor vertical farm, featuring YesHealth Group proprietary technologies, robotics, hydroponics, arrays of more than 20,000 LEDs, and smart software for processing over 5000 individual data points, all integrated with Nordic Harvest’s design of process flow and packaging... [READ MORE]
April 15, 2020
Fresh Plaza: "Nordic countries are willing to pay for quality and safety"
After months of detailed planning, Taiwan based vertical farming company YesHealth Group has commenced construction of its first international vertical farming project in Copenhagen, Denmark. “We are building one of Europe’s largest vertical farms in Copenhagen,” Business Development Director at YesHealth Group, Jesper Hansen reveals.The company partnered up with Nordic Harvest ApS to realise the project. The total installation will cover 7,000 sq. m including production area, offices, cold storage, labs etc.
The vertical farm will officially be opened later this year with participation of representatives of the Danish government who also visited the company in Taiwan before. "Once the vertical farm reaches full production capacity, it will yield more than 3.000 kg every day making it the most efficient vertical farm in Europe to date", Jesper says... [READ MORE]
February 20, 2020
Nordic9: Nordic Harvest secured DKK 62 million from Vækstfonden
Nordic Harvest, a Copenhagen, Denmark-based producer of vertical farming products, announced the completion of a DKK 62M ($9M) capital investment round.
The money was provided by VF Venture and the Danish Green Investment Fund and will be used for the expansion of a production facility in Taastrup (Copenhagen), that would allow increase production from 200 tons to 1,000 tons a year.
Nordic Harvest, founded in 2016 and led by CEO Anders Riemann, is a Vertical Farm producer, as it grows crops indoors, where the grow area is utilised optimally by placing the plants in floors. The products include lettuce, cabbage and herbs, and the future timeplan includes strawberries and blueberries as well as cucumbers, potatoes and alternative protein sources.
Subscribe to our Newsletter
Be the first to receive our latest news.
A New Standard of Food Safety in Fresh Produce™
.svg){kind=small}