Leafood (Leafood Group, UAB) and YesHealth Group (YesHealth Agri-Biotechnology Co., Ltd.) have initiated a partnership to build and operate a network of indoor vertical farms in Lithuania and the greater Baltic region, including Poland.

To fund the project, Leafood has secured a €6,45 million seed round, led by Niels Peter Pretzmann, founder of organic farm Farmer’s Circle and hospitality hub Baltic Food Republic, alongside YesHealth Group.

In the short term, Leafood is seeking to raise up to €2 million from investors who share their mission of farming healthy, pesticide-free produce, through controlled-environment agriculture, for the Baltic marketplace.

“Rarely do you come across a project that ticks nine out of the seventeen goals listed in the United Nations Sustainable development agenda 2030,” says Niels Peter Pretzmann, a serial food entrepreneur and main seed investor of Leafood. “Not only will Leafood allow us to shorten the supply chain - a key effort on the road to more sustainable, healthier diets, but it will also help us find solutions to acute problems in conventional farming. Solar panels set the path for cleaner, more affordable energy. The plants will be fed on bio-fertilizers derived from natural ingredients such as soybeans and oyster shells. But most importantly, it will dramatically prolong the shelf life of salads and herbs, which will contribute to solving the local as well as the worldwide issue of food waste. Along with my organic farming at Farmers Circle, Leafood continues on my chosen path toward the goal of bringing more sustainable, healthier foods to our daily tables.”

By developing a network of indoor vertical farms, Leafood aims to localize leafy green supply chains for urban dwellers across the Baltic region, who have long depended on imports from southern Europe and northern Africa.

“At the peak of winter in Lithuania, we see just 7 to 8 daylight hours, and temperatures below minus 3 degrees Celsius, which makes it impossible to grow year-round produce, outdoors and in the soil,” says Valentinas Civinskas, founder and CEO of Leafood. “Currently, Lithuania imports a lot of food, especially during winter, but we cannot continue to rely on a food system that is breaking down because of climate change, pandemics and the geopolitical situation. That’s why we need to innovate and find new ways to farm healthy, sustainable food, year-round, locally and indoors. By developing a network of high-tech, indoor vertical farms, we [Leafood] are trying to solve this problem of food security for the Baltic region.”

Construction of the first Leafood vertical farm is taking place in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, and slated for completion by Q1 2023.

The initial footprint of the indoor vertical farm is4000m²,within a 7150m² space, yielding over one-thousand kilograms of leafy vegetables per day, and it will be entirely powered by renewable energy sources such as wind and solar.

30thousand LED panels replace sunlight in the vertical farm, delivering specific light spectrums and at optimized temperatures.

Soilless, Gelponic technology forms the backbone of YesHealth Group’s 7th generation vertical farming system, delivering higher quality produce with significantly less waste than earlier generations of hydroponic technology.

“Since the early days of indoor vertical farming, we [YesHealth Group] have always focused on health and sustainability,” says Jesper Hansen, CCO of YesHealth Group. “But the challenge for us today is the same challenge faced by vertical farmers everywhere - not just to deliver on our promises of health and sustainability, but also profit. Our indoor vertical farms in Taiwan, the greater China region, Italy and Denmark have taught us how to overcome this challenge, so we are now able to share our technology and know-how with more global strategic partners like Leafood. We have agreed with Leafood to build and operate their first indoor vertical farm in Lithuania, reach profitability within two years, then expand together across the greater Baltic region.”

Factsheet

• Location: Sausupio St. 11B, Vilnius, 02301, Lithuania

• Construction Timeline: July 2022 - January 2023

• Built Area: 4000m² (Total Footprint)

• Height of Vertical Farm: 10m (14-Stories)

• Number of LED Panels: 30,000 Panels

• Number of Harvests Per Year: 10-15 Harvests (Depending on the Type of Crop)

• Max. Yield: 400 Tons Per Year

• Power Source: 100% Renewable Energy Sources

• Water Consumption: Less than 10% of traditional farming methods.

• Number of Employees: 35 Employees

• Leadership Names, Titles:

Valentinas Civinskas, CEO & Founder

Nerijus Baliūnas, CFO & Co-Founder

• Investment Figures:

€6,45M (Total)

€3,45M (From Investors)

€3M (From Loan Financing)

*Raising up to €2M in Q3 2022.