Producer Adrien Quaak, from the modern Greenhouses of the Loire Valley (Bonnée), has invested €10 million in a new 5 hectare, 7 metre high greenhouse in which he grows peppers.
The five varieties of peppers do not grow in the ground, but one metre from the ground in rock wool. "The advantage is that much less water is consumed through a drip irrigation system. The technology is brought to the benefit of the plant. We recreate a total ecosystem and the plant is protected from external influence," says Adien Quaak in the Central Republic. The system also prevents diseases, viruses and therefore the use of insecticides. The peppers will be mainly marketed by the Kultive company.
Adrien Quaak is not the only one embarking on the adventure. Greenhouse construction projects are multiplying in the Centre-Val de Loire region. Les Crudettes (LSDH group), specialized in ready-to-eat raw vegetables, is due to open a research greenhouse at the end of June, 3,000 square metres, to grow salads without treatment. Off the coast of the city of Pithiviers, the possible creation of giant greenhouses has been on the table since the end of 2014, launched by the Beauce-Gâtinais Valorisation union. "We produce heat and we don't know what to do with it. Hence the idea of building greenhouses, with a minimum area of 10 hectares," explains Christian Puech, President of BGV in the Central Republic.
In Vitry-aux-Loges, the Parisian company Agribionova wants to create 40 hectares of greenhouses on a 78-hectare site to produce fruit and vegetables all year round, without using plant protection products. Construction is expected to start in the summer of 2020.
Source: The Republic of the Centre