‘We can supply 20 restaurants weekly with our current facility’
From Vertical Farm Daily —
“You can grow anything with vertical farms, but what and how do you grow? That is the question investors kept asking us. When we pitched our approach as a premium vertical farm that has learned from earlier failures and built something unique, they were really keen to listen,” says Shun Sano, Co-Founder and COO of Cai Foods.
Since we last spoke with Cai Foods in March, the company has made steady progress toward realizing its vision for wasabi cultivation in the U.S. and beyond. Today, Cai Foods is moving away from a Proof of concept to production, expanding its facility in New Buffalo to supply over 30 restaurants with fresh rhizomes in the year ahead.
Transparency
Investor interest in indoor wasabi is growing, particularly in Japan, where the appetite for vertical farming has returned after earlier setbacks. According to Shun, Cai Foods stands out by being transparent about its financials and open about potential challenges.
“We are farmers, not a tech company. We want to take our time, prove out the technology, and they value that honesty.” Each part of their current system is designed specifically for wasabi’s strict needs, but it leverages existing hydroponic hardware and LEDs. Cai Foods’ growing system reduces the wasabi growth cycle from 2.5 years in greenhouses to under 10 months indoors.
Shun grew up in Japan in a family with longstanding agricultural roots. Therefore, he sees this work as more than a commercial opportunity and is about preserving the cultivation of wasabi. “In this way, we can share its incredible flavor and benefits with the rest of the world,” he says.