AppHarvest, Inc. announced that its Richmond, Ky., farm is officially open and has begun growing Campari brand tomatoes. The first harvest at Richmond is anticipated in early January, which will mean that for the first time AppHarvest is expected to have commercial shipments coming from each facility in its four-farm network. Half of the Richmond farm currently is planted, and the other half is expected to be planted in 2023.

In what the company believes is the largest simultaneous build out of controlled environment agriculture infrastructure in U.S. history, the company has quadrupled the number of farms operating in its network in 2022. Already this year, the company has opened two other high-tech indoor farms—a 30-acre farm in Somerset, Ky., for strawberries and cucumbers and a 15-acre farm in Berea, Ky., for leafy greens. AppHarvest is shipping strawberries under the “WOW® Berries” brand and washed-and-ready-to-eat leafy greens under the “Queen of Greens®” brand. In its third growing season, the AppHarvest Morehead farm has further diversified its crop adding snacking tomatoes sold under the Sunset brand as “Flavor Bombs®” and “Sugar Bombs®.” Morehead began its harvesting this season ahead of schedule.

According to USDA reports, the value of U.S. fruit and vegetable imports rose to a record level in 2021 and has been projected to keep increasing in 2022. Changing weather patterns—ranging from mega-drought in the Southwest of the U.S. to more frequent flooding to catastrophic wind events—are making it harder than ever for open-field farmers to predict the duration of their growing seasons and to have conditions that result in a quality harvest. Major food retailers have demonstrated increasing interest in high-tech indoor farms for their ability to de-risk fruit and vegetable production with a more climate-resilient, more sustainable year-round growing solution that uses far fewer resources.

Europe, a pioneer in the industry, is estimated to have nearly 520,000 acres of CEA production compared to an estimated 6,000 acres in the United States.