Fresh, locally produced salads all year round

• Ljusgårda will become one of Europe's largest vertical farms with 2500 m² of growing area
• Swedish grower will supply around 1 million bags of lettuce every month as of summer
• After first harvest in April, Ljusgårda will now be able to provide locally grown salad to Swedish households

Eindhoven, the Netherlands – More than 70% of the fruit and vegetables consumed in Sweden today are imported by truck, ship or plane from other countries. With the aim of making food production more sustainable, Swedish vertical farmer and salad producer Ljusgårda, plans to increase its production 20-fold and expand its cultivation capacity to produce at least 60 tons of salads a month, which is the equivalent of around 1 million bags. In April, the first batch of salads was harvested in the company's new premises – and already now, Ljusgårda can deliver significantly more locally grown salad to Swedish households, all year round. When the new 7000-m² indoor farm, of which 2500 m² growing area, is completed in the summer, Ljusgårda will become one of Europe's largest vertical farms.

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 to 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."

Today, Ljusgårda's salads are sold in more than 60 ICA supermarkets, mainly in the Swedish regions of Västra Götaland and Småland. With the expansion of the facility and production on a much larger scale, Ljusgårda aims to supply sustainable Swedish salads to stores throughout Sweden.

"We are delighted to help Ljusgårda to produce local, climate-smart salads.¹ Ljusgårda shares our vision of a sustainable transformation within agriculture and is focusing in particular on quality and flavor," says Henrik Nørgaard, Nordic Commercial Director of Agriculture at Signify. "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. By 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 plants of a higher quality and a higher percentage of crops being 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."

Supporting food availability through horticulture LEDs illustrates our commitment to supporting good health and wellbeing (SDG3). It is key to our commitment to doubling the percentage of our revenues for brighter lives, which benefit society, to 32%. This is part of our Brighter Lives, Better World 2025 program, which was launched in September 2020.