Nadec and Pure Harvest Smart Farms announce strategic partnership

The National Agricultural Development Company (Nadec) has announced a strategic partnership with Pure Harvest Smart Farms (Pure Harvest), one of the MEASA region’s leading technology-enabled agribusinesses, to deliver a large-scale national food security project in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). The project aims to deliver more than 27 hectares of production near-term – with prospects for significant future expansions on Nadec’s lands – serving KSA consumers a wide variety of locally and sustainably grown, high-quality, fresh produce year-round.

Pure Harvest will design, construct and operate high-tech, climate-controlled hybrid food production systems that allow year-round production of high-quality, safe and sustainably-grown fresh fruits and vegetables, free of pesticides, offering Saudi consumers a constant availability of high-quality fresh produce that was never before possible due to the Kingdom’s challenging arid climate. Nadec will utilize its existing infrastructure, far-reaching distribution network, and trusted consumer brands to deliver its partners fresh produce to the market. This strategic alliance is closely aligned to the Kingdom’s Vision for a more self-sufficient and sustainable food system.

The parties completed and commissioned their first-ever project on 29 December 2021, producing more than 15 varieties of high-quality, hydroponically-grown tomatoes in an approximately six-hectare high-tech, climate-controlled growing system in Nadec City, Haradh, KSA. This state-of-the-art, sustainable tomato production facility is fully integrated into Nadec’s existing infrastructure, including its innovative 30-MW captive solar farm. The ground-breaking project produces over five million kilograms of locally grown tomatoes a year, harvesting daily throughout the full year, with peak production occurring during the harsh summer months during which local production has historically been impossible, thus contributing directly to the Kingdom’s food sovereignty.

This project is the first of many that the partners expect to develop together integrating the full value chain of controlled-environment agriculture (CEA) production. Pure Harvest seeks to deploy substantial production capacity over the next five years in KSA, farming a wide range of crops, and Nadec will market these products to its expansive consumer base, hotels, restaurants, and catering partners. The partners share a vision to assist in the transition towards greater food security, water conservation, economic diversification, and sustainability in the Kingdom, as well as the broader GCC region. By originating large-scale, renewable energy-integrated food production infrastructure in KSA, Nadec and Pure Harvest are together making possible local-for-local high-quality, pesticide-residue free, clean, and healthy fresh fruits and vegetables production that, thanks to Pure Harvest’s pioneering production technology, are 'always in season' – proudly serving the Kingdom’s citizens.

“We are delighted to be partnering with Pure Harvest Smart Farms and to bring their distinctive controlled-environment agriculture (CEA) solutions and expertise to the Kingdom," commented Dr Solaiman A. AlTwaijri, CEO of Nadec. "Nadec has a long tradition of supplying a broad range of staple food products to both the Kingdom and the surrounding region. Moving into the supply of high-quality fresh fruits and vegetables is a natural extension of our legacy.  We remain steadfast in our commitment to provide safe, secure, local food supply for our customers, and this partnership is a new opportunity for us to delight those customers, while at the same time making a momentous contribution to the country’s food security and water conservation objectives. Nadec is proud to promote sustainable agricultural development in the Kingdom, in accordance with the ambitious goals of the Saudi Vision 2030, as well as the clear vision of our government."

“We are honored to begin this partnership with Nadec," added Sky Kurtz, Founder & CEO of Pure Harvest Smart Farms. "They are a formidable incumbent food supplier with a sterling reputation and brand, sizeable landholdings and enabling infrastructure, and an experienced leadership team. We greatly benefit from Nadec’s strength, and together we are pioneering a new category of fresh produce for the Saudi people – premium local.  High-quality, delicious, safe and affordable fresh produce that is always in season… offering new varieties, new products, and a fundamentally novel fresh produce experience. Our purpose at Pure Harvest is to enable positive change through smart, sustainable farming, and Nadec shares this objective. We are grateful to work with Nadec to accelerate the Kingdom’s vision towards a more sustainable future.”

Compared to traditional, lower-tech farming methods, Pure Harvest’s novel resource-efficient food production systems have many advantages aligned to the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 mandate to conserve resources and reduce carbon emissions. Other distinctive features of its systems include the absence of soil and pesticides, as well as leveraging information technologies to make the best possible production decisions, while largely automating certain agricultural processes such as irrigation, pest control, and climate management.

Pure Harvest’s growing systems result in very low water consumption per kilogram of production, and is principally powered using Nadec’s renewable energy.  Further, Pure Harvest can harvest waste heat from existing fossil fuel power plants and nearby infrastructure and use this energy to offset power demands in its climate systems, while consuming CO2 (a fundamental ingredient for photosynthesis) to significantly increase its productivity.  Due to the use of CO2  dosing, renewable energy integration, and the project’s close proximity to the Riyadh metro market – resulting in transportation-related cost and CO2 emissions savings – this first-of-its-kind farm in the Kingdom is among the most innovative and sustainable farming projects in the world.  As part of their partnership, Nadec and Pure Harvest will collaborate to support existing local farmers, by developing sustainable solutions that they too can use to improve yields, to reduce water consumption, and to boost production quality.