The Italian company Fri-El Greenhouse, owner of the H2Orto brand and based in Ostellato di Ferrara, manages a total of 30 hectares of hydroponic greenhouses.
"In 2025," says CEO Florian Gostner, "we will expand our range with new tomato varieties, including the yellow cherry tomato, the Tulemalu (single vine tomato) and the Piccadilly, mainly for the Italian market. Given this year's excellent results, we will also increase the area dedicated to the cultivation of mini cucumbers and long cucumbers for the Italian and German markets. Our main objective for 2025 is to consolidate our presence in Italy, increase our market share and improve local production."
Florian Gostner
The range varies according to the season. In winter," he says, "our range will include cocktail tomatoes, premium bunches and mini plums. From February we will also be offering mini cucumbers and long cucumbers. Our products are currently sold in Italy, Germany and Austria."
The market is volatile. "The tomato market has been quite difficult this year due to low prices from the beginning of the year until a few weeks ago. We are confident that there will be a recovery during the autumn and winter months. On the other hand, the cucumber season, especially the mini cucumber campaign, has been successful in terms of both production and prices."
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This year, for the first time, Fri-El had all 30 hectares of greenhouses in production: 15 hectares with LED lighting for winter production and 15 hectares for summer production.
The company is known for its focus on alternative energy and water conservation. "We are very pleased with our progress in using alternative energy. This year we have installed a further 3 MW of floating photovoltaic systems on our rainwater harvesting basins, bringing our total installed photovoltaic capacity to 6 MW. In addition, we are in the process of approving a further 16 MW of photovoltaic systems with a rainwater harvesting system, which will allow us to irrigate the greenhouses almost exclusively with rainwater.
He concludes: "The geothermal energy project is also well underway and I am confident that by 2025 we will have the first supply of heat generated from geothermal energy."
For more information:
H2ORTO
Via delle Serre 1
44020 Ostellato (Ferrara) - Italy
Davide D'Ignoto Sales Manager
Tel: +39 366.6491164
www.h2orto.it