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A Dutch corporation plans to build 250 acres of greenhouses at Hampton County’s Agricultural Technology Campus, where tomatoes and leafy vegetables will be grown for southeast consumers. Abundant
Zeb Portanova, executive director of the GEM Opportunity Fund, holds a bowl of tomatoes similar to those to be grown at the $350 million farm-generation campus, which was announced in 2020 in Hampton County. File/Provided
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A Dutch corporation plans to build 250 acres of greenhouses at Hampton County’s Agricultural Technology Campus, where tomatoes and leafy vegetables will be grown for southeast consumers. Abundant
One of Europe’s most sensible tomato growers is breathing new life into an allocation in Hampton County that was touted as South Carolina’s largest “Opportunity Zone” agricultural corporation before the pandemic slowed its progress and forced a trio of partners to pull out of the deal.
Harvest House, in the Netherlands, plans to build 10 controlled environment greenhouses totaling 250 acres, as well as a packing and distribution center on the 1,000-acre farm generation campus adjacent to Interstate 95 in Early Rural Branch, according to the South Carolina Department of Agriculture. Contracting is expected to begin next year with the production of the first harvest of tomatoes and leafy vegetables planned for 2024.
“This is a great greenhouse project, and we hope it will put South Carolina on the map when it comes to growing and distributing greenhouses on the East Coast,” said the firm’s spokeswoman, Eva Moore.
Harvest House, a consortium of manufacturers based in the village of Maasdijk, can be reached for comment last week.
Zeb Portanova, executive director of the GEM Opportunity Fund, holds a bowl of tomatoes similar to those to be grown at the $350 million farm-generation campus, which was announced in 2020 in Hampton County. File/Provided
Columbia’s financial organization GEM Opportunity Zone Fund remains the lead developer of the Agricultural Technology Center, helping to raise funds for the allocation at the South Carolina commercial campus, according to the state.
“We are completing the design phase and expect to start in early 2023,” said Zeb Portanova, CEO of GEM. “Given the drought and transportation prices related to transportation of vegetables from California and Mexico, we are excited to build the U. S. plant. The U. S. high-tech agriculture center is a leader here in South Carolina, resulting in vegetables grown insecticide-free for more than 50 years. millions of Americans in the eastern United States. “
Portanova said the Ag-Tech Center is pleased to have “secured one of the largest and most experienced manufacturers in Europe” with Harvest House.
Former assignment members Mastronardi Produce, Clear Water Farms and LiDestri are no longer part of the centre. They responded to requests for comment.
Inflation has taken the charge of the allocation to $350 million, up from $314 million when the Ag-Tech Center was announced two years ago. The center is expected to generate 1370 jobs, up from 1547 planned for 2020. which is part of the Trade Decomposer, last week reduced its commitment to the allocation from $9 million to $8 million due to reduced employment totals. The organization also extended the deadline for the allocation to be eligible for incentives until 2030.
The HC Department of Agriculture has committed $3 million for allocation prices and the Ag-Tech Center is eligible for state and federal tax breaks.
“It is wonderful to see this task move forward in Hampton County with a strong and experienced grower,” Agriculture Commissioner Hugh Weathers said in a written statement. “The Department of Agriculture began several years ago to read about the prospect of large-scale greenhouse agriculture. And with COVID, it took longer than expected, yet now this operation is about to rise a new size to our agricultural landscape.
The involvement of a company from the Netherlands is not unusual: this country is the largest agricultural exporter in the world at the moment, the United States, and is considered a pioneer in indoor cultivation techniques that use little water or land and without pesticides.
Inland agriculture specialists from the Netherlands spent months last year conducting studies at the Ag-Tech site on how their greenhouses can make the most of sunlight, humidity and other weather conditions. At the same time, the South Carolina Regional Development Alliance worked with locals and federals. agencies to leave in a safe position for the project.
Weathers, a member of an organization of state officials who traveled to the Netherlands in 2018 to learn more about that country’s “controlled environment” agriculture.
“We were actually inspired by the operations we saw and the amount of agricultural production in a very small space,” Weathers told Southern Farm Network at the time. “It’s exciting to think about where technological innovation can bring us to agriculture, and many South Carolina farmers are already strategies that would have been unrecognizable a generation ago. “
Contact David Wren at 843-937-5550 or on Twitter at @David_Wren_
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