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Sakata Seed America, Morgan Hill, Calif., has a new department that focuses on controlled environment agriculture, including traditional greenhouse operations and the newer wave of indoor production through vertical farms.
The move will boost Sakata’s role in developing produce to be grown in the controlled environment agriculture (CEA) facilities, according to a news release.
“We have been focused on this segment for a number of years, especially in the leafy greens category,” Justin Davis, Sakata Seed America’s director of sales and marketing, said in the release. “The timing is ideal for Sakata to create this group to hone our efforts on CEA in order to bring more products to the market for Indoor ag.”
Tracy Lee, who joined Sakata Seed America 11 years ago, will lead the new division. She has also been involved in product management at Geo. W. Park Seed Co. Inc. and W Atlee Burpee.
At Sakata Seed America, she has been involved in product development for multiple categories, and handling home garden and farm market vegetable seed sales.
“I think there is tremendous growth opportunity in serving the controlled environment agriculture segment, and I’m very pleased that Sakata is continuing its leadership in the market,” Lee said in the release. “This is something that I’m passionate about and have been active in for the past several years.”
In August, Bayer AG and Temasek formed Unfold, to develop vegetable varieties for vertical farms.
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