Ekonoke Spain

This interview details Ekonoke, an indoor farming company based in Spain. The interview is with Javier Ramiro, Head of Research and Development of Ekonoke.

Source: Ekonoke

What is the origin story of Ekonoke?

We are four entrepreneurs from Madrid who met when we were presenting our products at a FoodLab here in the city center, we liked each other and saw that our projects could come together at some point.


Antonio Rojas and I, Javier Ramiro, are both analytical chemists and had always worked in pharmaceutical and research laboratories. In 2017 we created an indoor microgreens and edible flowers (CEA) company called Los Tallos Microgreens.

Source: Ekonoke


Ana Sáez and Inés Sagrario, agricultural engineer and economist respectively, founded their company in 2016, called Achipámpanos. They grew babyleaf, aromatic, and leaf crops in greenhouses in zip grow towers.


Due to rising temperatures and climate change, which was already among us, we decided to join forces to continue the joint project but now completely indoors. In 2018 we founded Ekonoke and apart from our previous crops, we started several projects to cultivate species at risk due to climate change, saffron, blueberries, and hops. The results were all promising, but we focused on hops when we saw the great interest in our project.

Source: Ekonoke

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

Ekonoke's main challenge, like that of any vertical farming company, is energy consumption, but we believe that with the use of a mix of renewable energy and the knowledge we are generating about the crop, its needs and particularities, we will soon be a fully sustainable company. At the moment we have already managed to reduce water consumption for fertigation by 15 times compared to the field, from an average of 2700L to 180L per plant per cycle. And we are a CO2 sink, as we use the CO2 generated by the brewing industry to introduce it into our growing rooms.

Source: Ekonoke

What is unique about Ekonoke compared to competitors? 

We know that other big companies have tried, but apparently, they have not succeeded. We are entrepreneurs and perhaps we have that strength and energy that not everyone else has. We are a multidisciplinary team made up of biotechnologists, agronomists, chemists, economists, and financiers, and since we decided to go for hops we have used all our resources and strength on it. Perhaps betting on a single crop and not diversifying has helped us.

Source: Ekonoke


How do you measure the impact of Ekonoke so far? (Revenue, Employees, Customer Quantity, Production Volume) etc? 

So far we are a team of 11 people, but the intention is to grow rapidly with the development of our new facilities in Galicia. In September we opened a 1200m2 pilot plant to focus on scale-up and by the end of 2024 we will open the next 10000m2 facility in A Coruña for our brewing partner Estrella Galicia. We are achieving, depending on the variety of hops grown, between 800g and 1200 grams of dry flower per plant per cycle, with superior quality in terms of essential oils and alpha acids. We plan to grow the same amount of hops on 1 hectare as is grown on 40 hectares outdoors. More importantly, without the use of herbicides and pesticides. We are also in talks with other potential customers in Germany and also in Japan and we are developing the design of another hop-growing plant within the 100+Accelerator scheme of ABinBEV. For the time being, we cannot say more.

Source: Ekonoke


What have you learned that you wish you knew when you joined or started the company? 

One of the main things I learned was that mistakes are part of the progress of a start-up. You don't have to be afraid of them, but when they happen, you have to act quickly to fix them so that they don't happen again. In all entrepreneurial companies, in order to succeed, you have to make mistakes and all the mistakes we have made over the last 6 years have helped us to advance and improve.

Source: Ekonoke


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

The easiest way is via LinkedIn or my email address javier.ramiro@ekonoke.com, I would be happy to talk about science, and crops at risk from climate change, and vertical farming.

Source: Ekonoke

Asia Vertical Farming Companies: The 2023 Report

Download the Free Sample Report

Mark-Horler

"For a target audience that is trying to understand the basics of vertical farming, this is a quality newsletter to subscribe to"

- James Pateras, CEO, Modular Farms Australia

North America Vertical Farming Companies: The 2023 Report

Download The Free Sample Report

Mark-Horler

"The North America Vertical Farming Companies Report 2023 aggregates many sources of public information on many different companies so that you don't have to do the research yourself, it's worth the money and saves a lot of time"

- John Ireland, CEO, NTP Technologies

Europe Vertical Farming Companies: The 2023 Report

Download the Free Sample Report

Helen Andrew Spare Harvest

"As a business development manager supporting the indoor agriculture, CEA, and food tech industries, I can say Urban Vine guides and their insider newsletter provide detailed information often difficult to find online."

- Irena Lundberg, CleanTech Invest Stockholm

Middle East Vertical Farming Companies: The 2023 Report

Download the Free Sample Report

Mark-Horler

"As a marketing professional in the indoor agriculture industry, Urban Vine's newsletters, reports and guides are an excellent resource for keeping up-to-date with news and developments in vertical farming."

- Steven Mitchell, Product Manager, Intelligent Growth Solutions (IGS) UK

All Indoor Farming Company Interviews

Bowfield Farm

May 15, 2023

This interview details Bowfield Farm, an indoor farming company based in Ireland. The interview is with Ciara Allen, Managing Director at Bowfield Farm. To learn more about Bowfield Farm and other indoor farming companies, click on this link!

View Full Interview

Worldwide Local Salads

May 15, 2023

This interview details World Wide Local Salads, an indoor farming company based in UK. The interview is with Grahame Dunling, COO and Head of Business Development of Worldwide Local Salads. To learn more about Worldwide Local Salads and other indoor farming companies, click on this link!

View Full Interview

Hydropolis Poland

May 15, 2023

This interview details Hydropolis, an indoor farming company based in Poland. The interview is with Wojciech Krajewski, CEO of Hydropolis. To learn more about Hydropolis and other indoor farming companies, click on this link!

View Full Interview

Hausnatura

May 15, 2023

This interview details Hausnatura, an indoor farming company based in Slovakia. The interview is with Filip Toska, Co-Founder and CEO of Hausnatura. To learn more about Hausnatura and other indoor farming companies, click on this link!

View Full Interview

Imagine Farms

May 15, 2023

This interview details Imagine Farms, an indoor farming company based in the US state of Florida. The interview is with Cheryl Arnold, Co-Founder of Imagine Farms. To learn more about Imagine Farms and other indoor farming companies, click on this link!

View Full Interview

Ivvest

May 15, 2023

This interview details Ivvest, an indoor farming company developing indoor farming technology in Jordan. The interview is with Abdel Rahman Alzubaidi, CEO at Ivvest. To learn more about Ivvest and other indoor farming companies, click on this link!

View Full Interview

Vanilla Vida

May 15, 2023

This interview details Vanilla Vida, an Israeli indoor farming company developing technology for sustainably growing vanilla indoors. The interview is with Oren Zilberman, Co-Founder and CEO at Vanilla Vida. To learn more about Vanilla Vida and other indoor farming companies, click on this link!

View Full Interview

Vertical North Canada

May 15, 2023

This interview details Vertical North Canada, a leading indoor farming company developing a new format of vertical farming in Canada. The interview is with Bob Legault, Founder and CEO at Vertical North Canada. To learn more about Vertical North Canada and other indoor farming companies, click on this link!

View Full Interview

Vegbed

May 13, 2023

This interview details Vegbed, a leading indoor farming services company developing biodegradable growing media. The interview is with Albert Lin, Founder and CEO at Vegbed. To learn more about Vegbed and other indoor farming companies, click on this link!

View Full Interview

Babylon Micro-Farms

May 13, 2023

This interview details Babylon Micro-Farms, a leading indoor farming company based in the USA. The interview is with Chris Hollomon, Marketing Manager at Babylon Micro-Farms. To learn more about Babylon Micro-Farms and other indoor farming companies, click on this link!

View Full Interview