Photo of the week: Purple haze
The Colruyt Group is growing its own herbs in a new completely organic indoor farm in Halle
In Bio-Planet by next week
The basil crop is organic and will be available to buy in all Bio-Planet supermarkets, owned by Colruyt, by next Wednesday.
The basil is grown in racks with two levels in order to make maximum use of the space in one of Colruyt’s warehouses. There are currently 250,000 plants growing under a special purple LED light, and coriander will soon be planted here as well. The space is humid and kept to 25°C.
The indoor farm was developed with the help of researchers from KU Leuven and Ghent University to be as sustainable as possible. The water is collected rainwater from the roof of the warehouse.
90% less water
“In addition, we use 90% less water than a normal herb farm because the water that the plants don’t absorb or that evaporates into the air is recaptured and used again,” Colruyt innovation co-ordinator Wannes Voorend told De Tijd.
The electricity used for the heating and lighting is from a green energy source, confirmed Voorend, and of course the location means less transport is needed to get the plants to market. “Five times fewer kilometres are driven,” said Voorend.
Eventually the supermarket group would like to increase capacity to be able to supply herbs to all of the stores, which, besides Colruyt and Bio-Planet, include Okay, Alvo and Spar. But that will take a few years, admits Voorend. “We need to continue to develop the technology.”
Photo ©Thierry Roge/BELGA
