Ljusgårda, a Swedish vertical farmer and salad producer, plans to increase its production 20-fold and expand its cultivation capacity to produce at least 60 tons of salads a month. Signify is helping Ljusgårda in vertical farming to expand its production facility in Tibro by extending its cultivation area from 300 m2 to 2500 m2. This expansion will enable the production of fresh salad all year round.
Signify provides the company with its latest high-tech solutions: Philips GreenPower LED production modules and the Philips GrowWise control system. These allow the light spectrum and lighting levels to be controlled, resulting in improved quality and higher yields per square meter. As a result, Ljusgårda can ensure that its salads are highly tasty and nutritious. The lighting is managed by the Philips GrowWise control system to schedule growth cycles well in advance and to allow for greater automation.
Andreas Wilhelmsson, CEO, Ljusgårda, said: “Our expansion will enable us to offer our sustainably-grown salads to more Swedish households throughout the year, so we are looking forward to an exciting time. Signify has extensive experience of advanced lighting solutions and works with other large-scale indoor farms. They provide us access to lighting experts who can help us continuously improve production. Signify is also one of the few suppliers with the capacity to deliver in line with our growth plan. Together we are expanding our facility in Sweden. Signify’s controllable light spectrum enables us to optimize the light for cultivation and produce the highest quality crops.”
Henrik Nørgaard, Nordic Commercial Director of Agriculture, Signify, said: “We are delighted to help Ljusgårda produce local, climate-smart salads. Ljusgårda shares our vision of a sustainable transformation within agriculture and focuses on quality and flavour. This is important to Signify because of our strategic goal of helping our customers accelerate the use of sustainable farming to improve agriculture’s impact on climate change. Using the latest lighting systems in vertical farming, Ljusgårda can supply salads that meet the highest food safety standards. The right lighting also results in higher quality plants and a higher percentage of crops consumed, reducing food waste. Additionally, by helping Ljusgårda to grow locally we contribute to significantly reducing the food miles these salads have to travel before making it to Swedish consumers. We are, therefore, proudly taking part in the journey from the first green shoots to more consumers being able to enjoy Swedish salads all year round.”
