CRYSP Farms

This interview details CRYSP Farms, a Dubai-based vertical farming company. The interview is with Maan Said, CEO of CRYSP Farms.

‍

What is the origin story of CRYSP Farms?

Crysp Farms grew from a need to provide the highest quality produce possible by reducing the time from harvest to delivery. By eliminating logistics and handling, produce is delivered within an hour of harvesting.

Vertical farming provides the opportunity to hyper localize farming and as such Crysp took the ultimate step of literally placing the farms at the end users doorstep.

‍

Can you tell us more about your concept of farming-as-a-service?

In a nutshell … our farm,  our grower, your produce on your property!

Crysp works with Chefs to curate produce based on their requirements, they decide what we grow and in what quantity they want of each of our offerings which today exceed a 130 varieties.

‍

What are some of the most stand out features of your farming modules you would like to highlight? Are there any special features considering the hot climate

Our farms are customized for each client based on the location they select and based on the crop selection they want. Each farm is unique but all feature complete climate control and are monitored from head office where any

‍

‍

‍What are some of the biggest challenges facing CRYSP Farms in the future?

As the company continues to grow and adds new farms throughout the region, managing cross border operations will lead to new challenges, particularly as they relate to agriculture regulations which tend to vary from one country to the next.

Currently Crysp is undergoing its first foray into markets outside the UAE, starting with Qatar,  Bahrain and Saudi Arabia and the challenges faced in entering these markets are not significant.

What is unique about CRYSP Farms compared to competitors?

Our tagline. Others bring the produce………We bring the farm!

The primary distinguishing feature of Crysp is in our approach to farming. Our farms exist for a very specific client, serving their needs exclusively by providing a customized product mix on a daily basis, thereby providing the freshest possible crops in the market.

Our competitors tend to grow produce then find the market to sell that produce which can lead to spoilage due to time from harvest to consumption. By eliminating logistics, Crysp lowers the carbon footprint of the crops delivered and provides the highest nutrient value possible.

‍

‍

‍

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

Crysp has over 20 farms in operation and an additional 20 are either under construction or slated to be started in short order. Our pipeline of farms exceeds a 100 in multiple countries throughout Asia and Africa. Our customers include most of the top hospitality companies and several supermarkets. The company currently has a total of 35 employees including several Agri Engineers who are focused on developing new products and managing the training of our growers.

‍

‍

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

I started the company a few months prior to the onset of the Covid pandemic and we were initially unprepared for the onslaught of demand created by the global disruption of supplies. While I recognize that nobody could have predicted the pandemic, it taught me a valuable lesson in being able to deploy farms quickly and efficiently at the drop of a hat. This is now achievable through standardization and optimization of the farms with flexibility in addressing each client’s needs due to the modular nature of our systems.

‍

How can people connect with you or learn more about CRYSP Farms?

Its simple, they can email me at maan@cryspfarms.com, I’m always happy to talk about farming and Crysp

‍

Other Media Links: 

Crysp Farms Linkedin

Crysp Farms Website

Crysp Farms YouTube