Amersfoort, Netherlands-based food-processing company Nutreco has announced the opening of its Garden of the Future facility in Thurgau, Switzerland, which will serve as the new hub for the company’s phytotechnology program.
“What we’re harnessing is the incredible power of the plant kingdom,” Nutreco CEO David Blakemore said at the official opening of the facility on 5 June.
Located in an area of Switzerland known as the Phyto Valley, due to the high density of phyto-pharmaceutical companies, startups, and laboratories in the region, the garden will serve as the central location for all of Nutreco’s phytotechnology-related activities – from experimental cultivation to plant development and production.
The work completed at the garden will apply to both Nutreco's aquaculture and land-based animal production sectors, supplied through its Skretting and Trouw Nutrition business lines, respectively.
Led by director Bernd Büter and ethnobotanist Karin Berger, the garden includes a 500-square-meter experimental greenhouse for plant breeding and propagation, a 5,000-square-meter vegetative mass propagation greenhouse, around 30 hectares of cultivation space, and a Future Garden that puts the facility’s novel plants on display.
Two Nutreco-made machine-learning algorithms, one of which identifies plants capable of solving complex market issues and one that enables those same plants to be produced at sufficient scale, are critical to the garden’s success, according to Blakemore. This system allows Nutreco’s network of growers to ensure consistent, sustainable plant supply and its global logistics arm to ensure reliable delivery, he said.
“What we do here is a gamechanger. We are copying no one. We are creating a new frontier – a new reality; it’s not theory, it’s happening now,” Blakemore said. “The challenges are real, and the world is counting on us and our innovation.”
The facility is specifically focused on creating phytotechnology solutions, also known as phyto-complexes. These complexes comprise plants or plant metabolites that, when added to feed, have physiological impacts that consistently support the performance, health, and welfare of aquatic and land-farmed animals.
According to Blakemore, who took over the role of Nutreco CEO effective 1 June, the Garden of the Future will help Nutreco address many of the specific challenges its customers face and support them in improving their operations.
He said Nutreco’s phyto-complexes are being developed in ...
