Japanese vertical farm operator sells 100m servings of its Vegetus lettuce offering
Spread has surpassed 100m sales of its indoor leaf lettuce brand Vegetus while adding new products to its range in the process.
Vegetus was originally launched in 2008 at the dawn of the large-scale vertical farming industry in Japan.
Spread’s founder and chief executive Shinji Inada entered the vertical farming industry on the back of his strong concern about Japanese agriculture and the challenges it faced such as the volatility of fruit and vegetable prices, climate change, the decrease in agricultural producers and the lack of successors.
At the time the quality and price of vertically farmed vegetables was not on par with outdoor production, so Inada developed Vegetus to be high-quality and delicious while at the same time being an affordable product.
Spread harnessed innovative cultivation technology and improved its operations to make vertically farmed produce, and Vegetus more affordable for a wider audience and in November 2022 it passed the 100m milestone.
Spread has continued to add to its vertically farmed offering through the years, in 2021 amidst growing awareness of sustainability, Spread launched a sustainable product “Chigiri” using leaves that are removed during the production process. In 2023 it also added a new European lettuce variety, the first to be introduced in Japan, under the name of “Stick Lettuce”.
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