How to Select a Wholesale Hydroponic Produce Supplier
Hydroponic Kale locally grown at our high tech vertical greenhouse in DFW, Texas
What is hydroponic produce, and what should you look for when selecting a supplier?
In the world of wholesale produce, hydroponic growers have become a trend. As the COVID pandemic began to wreak havoc on traditional supply chains, hydroponic farms were not impacted as strongly, leading many wholesale buyers to give them a look. Additionally, these farms can offer local produce in any season and healthy greens year-round. The hydroponics market was valued at about $9.5 billion in 2020 and is expected to nearly double that number by 2026.
“The hydroponics market was valued at about $9.5 billion in 2020 and is expected to nearly double that number by 2026. ”
What is Hydroponic Produce?
Let’s start with the basics. Before you look for a hydroponic produce supplier, you should understand a little about the products they’re supplying.
Hydroponic produce is produce grown in water rather than soil. Hydroponic farms are typically indoors, often in greenhouses, where plants are stacked high in towers or trays. These plants are suspended above a water channel that delivers nutrients directly to their roots. Such a system allows farmers to grow a great deal of produce in a relatively small space. It also means they can grow crops regardless of soil conditions, climate, or weather.
Considerations When Choosing Wholesale Hydroponic Produce Companies
It would be easy to think of this as a sort of cookie-cutter farming situation, where any hydroponic produce company will likely be identical to the next, but nothing could be farther from the truth. Many of the systems that power these indoor farms are still in their infancy, with new growing technologies being developed daily. It’s important to carefully consider wholesale hydroponic produce companies to ensure the best possible product for your needs.
Safe
The first consideration when sourcing food products should always be safety, and it’s no different for hydroponic produce. Food recalls cost an average of $30M each for US brands, and you don’t want to bear a portion of that expense if it’s avoidable. How, then, do you ensure the hydroponic produce you’re purchasing won’t be the next big item on the FDA’s list?
Ask suppliers about their food safety procedures. Insist on a supplier that adheres to the strictest Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) standards. Ask about their sanitation and cleaning procedures. Look for a farm that employs daily pressure washing and sanitation of their technology components along with robust testing for listeria, salmonella, and other foodborne pathogens. Ideally, you want a greenhouse that is as close to laboratory conditions as possible to ensure that pests and contaminants don’t make their way into your food supply.
Sustainable
If indoor vertical farming has a weakness, it is this. Many indoor hydroponic farms rely on banks of LEDs to light their operations and allow plants to photosynthesize. This may mean a heavy reliance on fossil fuels and excessive use of the power they produce.
If you want sustainable produce, hydroponic farming is a step in the right direction, but not all hydroponic farms employ best practices in this area. Look for a farm that primarily uses natural sunlight to light its plants. This rules out most tray-based systems as only the top layer could potentially have access to sunlight. You’ll also want to find an option that recycles the water in its system, meaning it uses far less water than traditional soil-based methods. Finally, inquire about food waste—ideally, a hydroponic farm should strive for zero food waste, but some may not prioritize this metric.
Local
If we’ve learned anything from the recent global supply chain problems, it’s that local is almost always better. Ideally, you want a hydroponic produce company in your own neighborhood, allowing you access to fresh hydroponic produce within 48 hours of harvest. This means fewer miles traveled and fresher foods and offers you better insight into the operations at the other end. If your supplier is right down the road, you can pop in to chat about upcoming harvests and see how things are progressing. Suppliers on the other side of the world are much harder to monitor on a regular basis.
Grow Your Company with Eden Green Technology
Of course, one of the best options is to grow your own produce. This gives you the ultimate control over what is grown and how and allows you to adjust your crops to suit your specific needs at any given time. By partnering with Eden Green Technology to grow, pack and ship your product locally, you can quickly expand to more markets and offer more local items.
But for those who don’t have the time or resources to be both ends of the wholesale supply chain, there’s good news on that front, too. Eden Green Technology also offers a turnkey vertical farming greenhouse that allows you to create your own store brand produce or supply your restaurant with the freshest produce available. In as little as an acre and a half, we can create a customized greenhouse to supply your business with more than 50 varietals and around a dozen harvests per year.
Eden Green Technology’s experts will assess your needs, build a vertical farm designed to meet them, and even manage the daily operations of the greenhouse, freeing you up to do what you do best. You’ll be the owner of your very own farm, with some of the best vertical farming technology available for sustainable, safe, and local produce. You’ll also get to supply 30 full-time jobs to your community, each with a living wage, excellent working conditions, and full benefits!
So what are you waiting for? Contact our hydroponic experts today to discuss how an Eden Green Technology greenhouse can fit into your business.