Cantábrica Agricultura Urbana

This interview details Cantábrica, an indoor farming company based in Spain. The interview is with Javier Espina Campuzano, Co-Founder of Cantábrica.

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What is the origin story of Cantábrica?

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We are Tesa and Javi and we are both graduates in Biology. During our years of studies, we learned about a form of cultivation that does not need land and is based solely on the use of water: hydroponics.

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It is a system that allows producing high-quality plants quickly and sustainably. In addition, we delve into the study of Vertical Farming technology, a form of controlled environment agriculture that, along with the use of hydroponic systems, allows you to save a lot of growing space, increasing productivity per square meter.

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Interested in this methodology, we discovered its use to grow plants directly in the center of the cities, thus reducing emissions derived from their transportation, making it possible to consume fresher plants and involving people in the process of production of their food.

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It was in 2020, during the time we were confined by the pandemic, when we started to imagine what it would be like to develop a project of urban agriculture in Oviedo (Asturias, Spain), based on the concept of Vertical Farming. The idea was transformed into a project, the project into a business plan, and the plan of business in what is now Cantábrica Agricultura Urbana, an urban agriculture company sustainable, innovative, and original, which seeks to provide both professionals and individuals of top quality, healthy, different and fresh products.

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What are some of the biggest challenges facing Cantábrica in the future?

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The main challenges we face are: optimize our cultivation systems by incorporating more technology to make them more efficient, increase production to respond to the growing demand for products, expand our client portfolio, expand equipment, design marketing strategies to reach new market segments, and seek financing.

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What is unique about Cantábrica compared to competitors?

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Some of our competitive advantages are: specialization in high-quality products, the use of hydroponics (organic agriculture being an alternative, our choice of hydroponics, which is a global trend, differentiates us), being able to offer out-of-season products (our ability to produce foods in high demand year-round, regardless of the seasons or climate, is a significant advantage), proximity and sustainability (by growing close to our customers we offer fast service and fresh products and, in addition, we reduce the carbon footprint associated with transportation) and innovation and technology, which make us more efficient.

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What is the current size of your growing area?

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Our growth area covers more than 80000 potential clients, in our country alone.

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How can people connect with you or learn more about Cantábrica?

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To contact us or learn more about us, the innovative form of agriculture we work with or our products, we would like people to not hesitate to visit our Instagram (@cantabricagr) or our website (www.cantabricagr.com)

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