Planet Farms and Swiss Life Asset Managers have announced a partnership focused on the development and operation of controlled environment agriculture infrastructure. The joint venture will include the operational Cirimido (Como) facility, with a growing area spanning 20,000 square meters, making it one of the largest controlled environment agriculture infrastructure facilities worldwide. The facility currently supplies over twenty leading supermarket and tier-one brands in the foodservice industry across Italy and Switzerland through long-term offtake or framework agreements.

With an initial capital endowment of up to €200 million from the partners, complemented by additional debt financing, the joint venture will develop multiple facilities across EMEA, replicating the technological blueprint of Cirimido, including projects currently under development in the United Kingdom and Scandinavia. Planet Farms will continue to provide all know-how pertaining to engineering, software, robotics, and agronomy required to develop farms and optimize operations.

The industrial-scale, end-to-end automated facilities will serve large retailers, foodservice operators, and global companies in the beauty, cosmetics, beverages, and specialty food sectors, strengthening their strategic supply chains and protecting them from geopolitical, climate, and logistical risks, among others.

Daniele Benatoff, Co-founder and CEO of Planet Farms, said: “Since day one, in 2018, we invested resources and energy to create a climate-agnostic technological platform that can be replicated globally. The partnership with Swiss Life enables us to provide strategic technology solutions to customers who are facing supply chain challenges.”

Luca Travaglini, Chairman and CTO of Planet Farms, added that “Reliable supply chains are mission-critical to our customers, and this partnership allows us to deploy the infrastructure to structurally address topical issues, including climatic volatility, a shifting global trade landscape, and sustainability. Compared to traditional agriculture, our process will continue to reduce water consumption by 95% and soil consumption by 93%, while ensuring total control over quality, safety, and traceability.”

Gianfranco Saladino, Head of Value-Add Infrastructure at Swiss Life Asset Managers, commented that “This transaction embodies our investment strategy of deploying capital in critical infrastructure assets with significant scale-up potential. CEA infrastructure is at the intersection of strong tailwinds, such as decarbonization, climate adaptation, enhancement of logistic chains, and urbanization.”