How One Central Market Plans To Grow Its Own High-End Produce In Shipping Containers

The next Central Market salad in Dallas you buy may not have been shipped across the country. Your lettuce, kale, or carrots could come from a vertical growing container behind the store.

By Alexandra HartApril 11, 2017 2:47 pm

H-E-B’s upscale grocery store chain, Central Market, has partnered with the Dallas-based startup CEA Advisors to grow some of its own produce in shipping containers on one Dallas store’s property. The containers, or “Growtainers,” have highly-customizable options for controlling light intensity, angle and wavelength, in addition to moisture, temperature, and CO2 levels.

CEA Advisors Founder Glenn Behrman says the containers help growers customize the environment to improve produce quality. While the containers don’t support the growing of large volumes of produce, Behrman says that the controlled conditions will keep quality consistent.

“We’ve designed this particular system to create unique, unusual, rare, gourmet, small quantities of really top-of-the-line stuff for chefs and people that take interest in cooking,” Behrman says.

What you’ll hear in this segment:

– The amount of produce the containers will be able to provide

– The different ways that the containers’ environment can be customized and the desired outcomes

– How plant-based pharmaceutical companies can partner with CEA Advisors to grow vitamin-enhanced plants

Written by Emma Whalen.