A couple of weeks ago, AVF spoke with Endre Harnes, Chief Commercial Officer at Avisomo.

Who is Avisomo? What is your Technology, and who is it for?

Avisomo is a Norway-based vertical farming systems supplier, and we see ourselves as the next step in vertical farming. We have developed a vertical farming system tailored for large-scale retail integration and are currently working with Norwegian retailer COOP to deliver at scale. 

The future of food lies at the intersection of new production methods and existing supply chains. Food industry companies today struggle with unpredictable deliveries of fresh produce, with production methods that lead to short shelf life and negative effects on both climate and nature. To establish a sustainable food system and turn the tide on climate change, we must integrate a new approach to food production into the existing system. 

Enter Avisomo’s vertical farming solutions, specifically designed for seamless integration with the fresh produce supply chain of large-scale retail organizations. You provide the market and the distribution, Avisomo provides a fully automated, remotely operated, cost-efficient system that ensures year round, high-quality fresh produce directly to your store or customer. (Avisomo) 

What is unique about your product and your approach?

Our grow system, FRØY, is an end-to-end vertical farming system that solves a wide range of industry challenges:

• Our system is based on an industry 4.0 logic, where the produce is being moved around the facility in a way that eliminates all queues. No more FIFO, abundant flexibility in production.
• It is based on food-industry standards, reducing system costs and simplifying integration with off-the-shelf solutions for automation and other machinery
• With FRØY, we also integrate all software solutions into one overarching software architecture, automating the entire process from seeding to climate control to order management.
• Our solutions are designed to significantly reduce operational costs while simultaneously elevating the quality of produce.

Avisomo Team

Tell us more about your partnership with Norwegian retailer COOP.

The partnership came about after we spent a long time learning and understanding the pain points for retailers in the supply chain, including the need for simplifying and supporting supply chains they need to maintain throughout the year, import challenges due to crops failing in producing countries, and issues around seasonality, especially in the Nordic countries. 

Retailers face very specific challenges in their fresh produce supply chains, and our system seems to solve a lot of them

Avisomo is currently scaling up its proof of concept in a 1000-meter square facility in collaboration with Norwegian retailer COOP. 

How did the partnership with COOP come about?

COOP was actively looking for a partner who had the expertise to implement vertical farming practices and be able to integrate those into the existing supply chain. At the same time, they wanted to retain focus on their strength as a retailer. COOP has been very welcoming and open during the time we have been working in collaboration. One of the key drivers of the partnership was how COOP would need a vertical farm to work the same way as all their other factories, with automated processes and standards that are integrated into their modus operandi. And we could deliver that for them.

How was the process of scaling up – were there any issues or concerns?

We are still in the process of finalizing the facility, and it has of course been a challenging process. Thankfully, Avisomo has systems and partners in place that has made the scaling-up process run smoothly. 

The key is for us to play to our strengths while benefiting from working and collaborating with partners and experts in the wider industry to ensure a successful project delivery for COOP.  Come 2025, we are very much looking forward to see produce in Coop stores in Norway.

What is the level of automation in the facility?

The system Avisomo is building right now is fully automated, meaning that no human will touch anything from seed to packaged product. The first person to touch the plant will be the consumer when they open the bag from their fridge at home. 

What is the potential of your technology going forward?

We are constantly working to improve our technology. We are always conducting R&D to identify ways of reducing energy consumption or trial setups to find the perfect recipes for a variety of different crops, including strawberries, tomatoes, cucumbers, and perhaps hops.

What are your goals going forward?

Right now, we’re focusing on building the proof of concept in the industrial facility at COOP and closing our current fundraising round. After this phase of building and testing, we may deploy another facility somewhere else in Europe over the next year. Following our planned series A fundraise in 2025, we aim to build a larger R&D center and work towards using our unique approach to automate R&D efforts. 

Are you going to be at VertiFarm for the AVF Summit in October?

Absolutely! And we hope  we’ll be able to show everyone videos of robots and produce moving around the full-scale facility by then. 

Avisomo is interested in collaborating with a wide range of industry actors from growers, to retailers and food distributors, so if their approach sounds interesting to you, reach out to Endre and Avisomo via e-mail:endre@avisomo.no 

You can meet the Avisomo team at VertiFarm  08-10 October 2024, Messe Dortmund, Germany. Endre will be presenting on Retail Supply Chain Integration – Vertical Farming’s Way to Mainstream Markets?