Urban Crop Solutions was awarded on Thursday evening October 26th the FoodNexus Innovation Award. Out of many innovative companies a jury of experts in the agriculture and food industry selected Urban Crop Solutions as the most promising company in the Belgian agri-food industry. Urban Crop Solutions will defend Belgium in the European FoodNexus competition, together with another Belgian company from the French speaking part of the country, during an event in Wageningen (the Netherlands) on December 13th.
FoodNexus is a European consortium of international food companies and leading knowledge institutions that strives to create a robust and sustainable European Food System. The Belgian FoodNexus challenge was organized for the first time in collaboration with Flanders’ FOOD, the Universities of Ghent and Liège, Food2Know and many other partners. The core business of the young, participating companies must be related to one of the three following areas: food safety and sustainability, food quality, and health and well-being. The aim of the challenge is to identify and stimulate the most promising young companies , and connect them to leading European corporates in the agri-food industry. This allows the companies to scale their innovations to benefit people and planet, with the support of these partners. Urban Crop Solutions was chosen as young company of the year by a panel of corporate and scientific experts from the agricultural and food industry.
“This award is yet again a highlight for our company. It’s a valuable recognition of the efforts that our team has already made for Urban Crop Solutions. We thank this award to their infinite commitment. We want to keep on improving and creating the best indoor vertical farming solutions for our customers everywhere in the world”, says Maarten Vandecruys, CEO of Urban Crop Solutions. “This award is also a recognition for our business model and our global approach. We commit ourselves to bring to our clients Belgians top expertise in growing crops and automations and robotics”, adds Frederic Bulcaen, Chairman of Urban Crop Solutions, with a big smile.
Since 2014 Urban Crop Solutions develops for its clients tailored plant growth installations. These systems are turnkey, robotized and able to be integrated in existing production facilities or food processing units. Urban Crop Solutions also has its own range of standard growth container products. Being a total solution provider Urban Crop Solutions can also supply seeds, substrates and nutrients for clients that have limited or no knowledge or experience with farming. Currently the company has a growing list of more than 200 varieties of crops that can be grown in closed environment vertical farms and that have been validated. These plant recipes (ranging from leafy greens, vegetables, medicinal plants to flowers) are developed specifically for indoor farming applications and sometimes exclusively for clients by its team of plant scientists. Urban Crop Solutions has started activities in Miami (Florida, US) in 2016 and is soon to open a division in Japan.
CONTACT
For more information on this press release, on Urban Crop Solutions or on the products and services of Urban Crop Solutions you can contact Maarten Vandecruys, Co-founder and Managing Director (mava@urbancropsolutions.com), Frederic Bulcaen , Co-founder and Chairman (frbu@urbancropsolutions.com ) or visit our website (www.urbancropsolutions.com):
Headquarters:
Grote Heerweg 67
8971 Beveren-Leie (Waregem)
Belgium, Europe
Regional headquarters:
800 Brickell Avenue, 1100 Suite
Miami (FL 33131)
Florida
USA
Facebook: www.facebook.com/urbancropsolutions
Twitter: www.twitter.com/U_C_Solutions
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/urbancropsolutions
YouTube: bit.ly/UrbanCropSolutionsYouTube
The following pictures are attached to this press release:
Photo left: PlantFactory at the headquarters in Beveren-Leie (Waregem), Belgium
Photo middle: PlantFactory at the headquarters in Beveren-Leie (Waregem), Belgium
Photo right: FoodNexus start-up challenge – ceremony