Welsh farmers and entrepreneurs are embracing micro-scale vertical farming in a bid to diversify and to create more reliable sources of income, with two businesses being showcased at the recent Royal Welsh Show.
Gareth Griffiths-Swain founded Fungi Foods at Tyn-yr-Onnen farm, near Waunfawr in the heart of Eryri national park in Gwynedd. Historically a 300 ewe sheep farm, he identified the potential in some farm buildings and now produces high-end mushrooms for retailers and local chefs and also won a TV show enabling him to supply Aldi.
“It’s been fantastic for us and we’ve had to scale up in quite a small amount of time,” Gareth said. “Mushrooms are super space-efficient, you can grow so much food in a very, very small space – we’re now growing for a large UK retailer and doing it on our small farm. It doesn’t matter about the weather outside; we create the environment in which mushrooms thrive so you can keep producing throughout the year.”
Elsewhere, husband and wife Chris and Donna Graves have gone from growing a single tray of microgreens on a windowsill, to creating a vertical farm in their garage. They admit the energy costs can be challenging but have found success with local customers. The business continues to expand and is in the process of moving into an industrial unit in Rhondda Cynon Taf.
“The beauty of it is we can grow 365 days a year,” Donna told BBC Wales. “It’s the fact that they’re grown in Wales and aren’t travelling miles from across the border. If we can drive down the costs we’d like to get into the public sector as well, serving hospitals and schools.”
Now researchers from Aberystwyth, Swansea and Cardiff Metropolitan universities have joined forces on a project to establish a Welsh Centre for Excellence for controlled environment agriculture to help other farms diversify. “We’re seeing lots of microgreen farming operations across the UK,” explained Dr William Stiles, a soil scientist from Aberystwyth University. “They tend to sell direct to the consumer at farmers’ markets or high end restaurants, selling niche goods. So, they do achieve some good business models and make a certain amount of money, but it’s early days. [We hope to work on] the significant challenges facing vertical farming as it transitions from technological infancy into mainstream food production.”
