Fischer Farms is due to start trial production early next year following its initial £33m investment on a five-and-a-half acre site on the Food Enterprise Park at Easton, outside Norwich.
Tim Smith, general manager of the company's "Farm 2" operation, said another three vertical farms are planned at the same site during the next two years, backed by specialist investors Gresham House.
Speaking to about 50 members and guests of Holt and District Farmers' Club, he said this was part of a £1bn planned investment in growing high-quality salads, fruit, and vegetables in specialist indoor farms in England in the coming years.
Fischer Farms has already built a vertical farm at Lichfield and also has advanced plans for further vertical farming operations near Hull, which will include growing soft fruit such as strawberries and possibly other berries. The 20 growing tunnels would contain a total of 7,200 trays, every 1.2m by 3.3m. These would be stacked, depending on the state and height of the growing crop, either six high for final growing or in eights for the nursery stage and twelve during germination.
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