Indoor farming, answered with our own numbers
The questions we are asked most often about in-store farming – energy, pesticides, cost and food security – with answers based on data from our farms.
About Swegreen
What is in-store farming?
Growing salad, herbs and leafy greens in a closed vertical farm inside a supermarket, restaurant or kitchen. The produce is harvested a few metres from where it is sold or served.
Is Swegreen a vertical farming company?
Yes. Swegreen is a Swedish agtech company specialising in in-store vertical farming, run as a service for retailers. How in-store farming differs from a central vertical farm.
How many farms does Swegreen operate?
Around 20, in Sweden and Germany. See all our farms.
Which retailers work with Swegreen?
ICA and Coop in Sweden, EDEKA in Germany, and the restaurant at Fotografiska in Stockholm.
Energy and environment
How much energy does an in-store farm use?
Our farm at Maxi ICA Solna used 203,337 kWh in 2025 and grew 151,092 plants: 1.35 kWh per plant, about 17 kWh per kilo for its herb-heavy mix and about 10 kWh per kilo for lettuce. See the measured data.
Is in-store farming pesticide-free?
Yes. Crops grow without soil in a closed, controlled environment, so no pesticides, herbicides or synthetic crop-protection chemicals are used from seed to shelf.
How much water does indoor farming use?
About 1.3–1.5 litres per kilo of in-store grown lettuce, compared with 50–330 litres for field-grown lettuce from Spain – up to 99 % less.
What is the climate footprint?
About 0.3 kg CO₂e per kilo of lettuce with the Swedish electricity mix, against 1.6 kg for imported Spanish field lettuce – about 81 % lower.
What happens to an indoor farm during a power outage?
[ANSWER TO CONFIRM: how long crops tolerate an outage, backup options and how the farm restarts.]
For retailers
What does an in-store farm cost?
No investment for the store. Swegreen covers the farm on an agreement of three years or more; the store pays a monthly fee and keeps all sales revenue. How Farming as a Service works.
How much space is needed?
From 6.7 m² for a one-pod Sphere (40 crops a day). A full-scale Freja farm needs about 45 m² and grows 300–450 crops a day.
Which crops can be grown?
Around 80 varieties of salad, herbs, leafy greens and microgreens. Basil is the largest single crop in our Solna farm.
Food security
Can in-store farming strengthen food security?
Yes. The farms are space-efficient, recirculate their water, are controlled digitally and sit where people live – independent of season, weather and global supply chains. Read about food resilience.
Does it replace traditional farming?
No. It complements domestic agriculture, particularly in the months when field growing is not possible in northern Europe.
Press information
Company description, free to use:
Swegreen is Sweden's leading in-store farming company, the highest-ranked Swedish company in FoodTech 500 2025, operating farms inside ICA supermarkets since 2020, with over 25 years of combined operation.
Key figures: around 20 farms in Sweden and Germany · 151,092 plants grown at Maxi ICA Solna in 2025 (measured) · 1.35 kWh per plant · US patent granted 2026.
Report: Närodlat 3.0 – from 3,000 km to 3 metres (Swedish) →