In December 2023 Pure Harvest Smart Farms and RedSea announced an intended acquisition – with a signed letter of intent detailing Pure Harvest’s takeover of RedSea’s controlled-environment agriculture (CEA) facility near Riyadh.
Pure Harvest is a tech-powered agriculture business with aims to revolutionise food production in order to enable a sustainable food future. Using CEA, the company enables food security even in arid environments where crop growth is extremely challenging.
Its facilities are 7x more efficient than more typical desert greenhouse farms, 30x more efficient than traditional farming, and are able to grow crops all year-round – even in the harshest, hottest conditions. They also minimise water consumption, with 85% of water used leaving the farm in the food – not wasted in the production process.
And RedSea is a climate tech pioneer – advancing commercial farming capabilities in hot climates around the world. The firm’s proprietary Hot Climate Agriculture technologies generate higher yields, enable profitability, and have a focus on sustainability – saving water and energy in the growing process.
It’s not selling everything. Pure Harvest is acquiring RedSea’s six-hectare CEA facility – as part of RedSea’s strategic transition into a pure tech company, which aims to expedite the development and commercial availability of AgriClimate tech solutions.
For Pure Harvest, the move is part of its ambitions to expand in Saudi Arabia; along with a continued push to innovate with its business models and partner with farmers and farms across different markets, in order to scale sustainable farming opportunities around the world.
It’s a clear fit for both companies, which are equally dedicated to advancing CEA technologies and supporting good security and economic diversification in the Middle East region.
Sky Kurtz (Co-founder and CEO at Pure Harvest) told Food Business Gulf & Middle East:
“We are delighted to partner with RedSea and to support its strategic transition. Both companies wholeheartedly believe that technology will play a critical role to mitigate climate change and ensure the availability, affordability, safety, and sustainability of food. This transaction allows us to double our footprint in the Kingdom and serves as a foundational deployment of our novel ‘franchise farming’ business model, a solution that has been under development for over two years.”
And Ryan Lefers (Co-founder and CEO at RedSea) added:
“In Pure Harvest, we have found a custodian for what we have built in the Kingdom to-date, including our fruitful partnership with Alajaweed Farm. They are a partner to carry the torch and have demonstrated passion, commitment, and capabilities to farm in challenging climates, and to invest in the Kingdom. We look forward to working with Pure Harvest as a technology partner in the years to come, and to bringing the AgriClimate solutions we’ve honed over the past five years to farmers all over the world.”
Countries across the Middle East are investing in sustainable agriculture and AgriTech. Qatar, for example, has been making significant investments into technology and digitalisation to transform local food production and drive the global industry forwards; and the UAE and Saudi Arabia are committed to AgriTech innovation, in order to reduce dependency on imported food products.
Pure Harvest’s acquisition of RedSea is aligned with these goals, and highlights Saudi Arabia’s emerging position as a leader in agricultural innovation; as well as being a move that will help to solve the global climate and food security crisis, and enable sustainable food production in the harshest climates on the planet.
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