Grahame joined in 2014 and is proud of the fact that with the same Production Manager and the same staff and same growing area the turnover increased from $115,000 a year to $1,060,000.
He says this was not only down to marketing the produce as local desert grown, but by staff training from the the very basic greenhouse worker to Edi the production manager, who became a valuable member of the team. Together they won the Farm of the Year award.
Without further investment in more modern technology Grahame feels the farm has gone as far as it can go and he feels it is time to move to the next challenge.
This challenge is taking him back to the mid 2000's when he worked for a very large indoor Vertical Farming group and early pioneers of using automation inside a warehouse.
Grahame says that having 40 years of large scale commercial growing helps him with most tasks, as he knows all the major companies and has worked with most of them at some point in his career.
Grahame has partnered with local businessman Omar Al Jundi; together they are going to install a automated vertical grow system growing gourmet salads for local restaurants and chefs in Dubai: Badia Farms. From this base they are then going to build a worldwide franchise network growing to the same protocols and standards of large scale commercial growers.
Grahame says he has perfected a technique he started where he can grow the herbs without the need for any artificial feed or chemicals just using pure drinking water and organic compost.