AppHarvest kicks off third season of commercial shipments of tomatoes ahead of schedule from Morehead, Ky., 60-acre high-tech indoor farm

Company expands crop set into new varietals of premium snacking tomatoes

Company announces planting of 360,000 tomato plants at new 60-acre Richmond, Ky., farm as it works to quadruple number of farms in 2022

MOREHEAD, Ky., Nov. 22, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- AppHarvest, Inc. (NASDAQ: APPH, APPHW), a sustainable food company, public benefit corporation and Certified B Corp building some of the world’s largest high-tech indoor farms to grow affordable, nutritious fruits and vegetables at scale while providing good jobs in Appalachia announced today it has kicked off the third season of harvesting ahead of schedule with commercial shipments of tomatoes from its 60-acre high-tech indoor farm in Morehead, Ky.

Martha Stewart, an AppHarvest board member, hosted a press conference for the company’s first harvest of tomatoes in January of 2021. Since that time, the company has opened two additional high-tech indoor farms—a 30-acre farm in Somerset, Ky., for strawberries and cucumbers and a 15-acre farm in Berea, Ky., for salad greens—both of which are currently shipping produce to top national grocery store chains, restaurants and food service outlets through its distributor, Mastronardi Produce. AppHarvest is shipping strawberries under the “WOW Berries” brand from nearly 1 million strawberry plants and a variety of salad greens for the “Queen of Greens” washed-and-ready-to-eat salad packs.

As AppHarvest works to quadruple its number of farms in 2022, the company continues construction on a fourth facility, a 60-acre farm in Richmond, Ky., that will grow tomatoes. While finalizing construction, half the Richmond farm has been planted with 360,000 Campari and Maranice varieties of “Tomatoes on the Vine,” which are expected to start harvesting in January of 2023.

“With the experience of two seasons of harvests, the Morehead farm is seeing significantly improved quality and yield, which largely can be attributed to task completion rates of crop care specialists meeting and sometimes exceeding 100% of goal,” said AppHarvest Founder & CEO Jonathan Webb. “We’re developing a tenured workforce and seeing benefits of promoting from within to help drive efficiency and quality from folks who have grown the business with us from the ground up.” The AppHarvest team has continued to enhance training with routine quality checks of crop care tasks, which facilitates quick retraining if needed.