Today, June 10, the English online food supermarket Ocado, carrying out all its home deliveries directly from its warehouses, announced a double investment, which, according to him, will allow it to "become a leader in the new vertical agriculture industry."

Ocado signed a memorandum of understanding with 80 Acres Farms, an American vertical farming company and Priva Holding, a Dutch supplier of industrial gardening systems, with the goal of creating a joint venture Infinite Acres to develop “turnkey solutions” for vertical farming customers.

Vertical farming includes food production in rooms where crops are grown at a number of levels in a strictly controlled environment, which allows producing crops with low losses, very low water consumption, minimal land use and the absence of pesticides, which distinguishes vertical agriculture from traditional.

Ocado expects the deal to be completed by June 30. Each partner will own one third of the share in the joint venture. Ocado also completed the acquisition of a 58% stake in the Jones Food Company, which runs the largest vertical farm in Europe in Scunthorpe.

According to Ocado, the JFC vertical farm is capable of growing 420 tons of leafy greens and herbs per year for the UK market and plans to increase both the number of crops grown and expand production throughout the UK.

These two transactions represent Ocado's £ 17 million investment in vertical farming.

“We believe that our current investment in vertical farming will allow us to solve the fundamental consumer problems in terms of freshness and sustainability and will be based on new technologies that will revolutionize the way consumers access fresh products,” Ocado said.