FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Northampton, 5 June 2026 – The consortium behind EMQ+, a DEFRA-funded research project delivered through Innovate UK, focused on strawberry propagation in Total Controlled Environment Agriculture (TCEA, aka Vertical Farming), today announced the addition of InnoPhyte Consulting and Flex Farming to the project consortium.
The inclusion of these two businesses reinforces the project’s capabilities and ensures the successful completion of key work packages. The consortium is now enabled to deliver planned outcomes that will maximise value for industry, academia, and UK taxpayers.
The three-year project is now in its final year and continues to evaluate and compare the production of strawberry propagules in TCEA systems for subsequent cultivation in glasshouses, polytunnels, or TCEA facilities. These high-health plants have the potential to produce higher yields, allowing growers to produce more strawberries within the same growing area. In addition, propagules produced in controlled environments can have significantly lower levels of pests and diseases, including pathogens such as powdery mildew, improving plant health and crop performance. Increased fruit productivity is achieved through the optimisation of environmental conditions such as temperature, relative humidity, and light, which promote flower induction and plant development, and can ultimately enhance production in protected cropping systems.
Eighty-five percent of UK-produced strawberries are grown from imported starter plants (propagules), and vertical farming has the potential to displace these imports by facilitating year-round availability of high-quality, disease-free propagules with assured and consistent cropping potential. Using vertical farms to grow strawberry propagules, more plants will be grown in the UK, thanks to a controlled environment ability of guaranteeing supply. The increased yields that these new home-grown plants promise will allow UK growers to take a larger share of the strawberry market. In 2024, the UK imported approximately £293 million worth of strawberries, representing 43.5% of the domestic market.
Since its inception in 2023, the project has brought together a diverse group of partners to improve the yield potential of propagated strawberries. The addition of InnoPhyte Consulting and Flex Farming introduces complementary skills and capabilities in TCEA strawberry cultivation, and strengthens the consortium’s ability to achieve its objectives within the project timeframe.
“We’re delighted to join the EMQ+ project,” said Katia Zacharaki, CEO of InnoPhyte Consulting. “Our expertise spans TCEA across a range of crops, as well as the management of innovative, science-led projects. Flex Farming is an established commercial operation that brings valuable expertise in TCEA. Together, we will support the existing partners and help ensure that EMQ+ delivers meaningful outcomes. These outcomes will benefit our partners through innovation within the soft fruit sector while providing strong value from the substantial public investment made in this project.”
InnoPhyte Consulting will contribute to project exploitation activities, knowledge exchange, dissemination, and networking across both national and international audiences, supporting the consortium’s efforts to advance strawberry propagation in controlled TCEA systems. The team will also provide project management support.
Flex Farming will provide capabilities in the commercial growing of strawberries in TCEA, helping to accelerate the project’s progress towards commercialising high-health propagation for the UK protected strawberry crop.
“The opportunity to participate in EMQ+ came at just the right time,” said Ahmad Mohseni, CEO. “We have been concerned with the disease burden encountered in commercially propagated strawberry plants, which adversely affect yield, quality and ultimately, profits. This project represents an important opportunity to for us to collaborate with leading organisations and help create lasting value both for ourselves and the rest the sector.”
The consortium remains committed to delivering the project’s objectives, generating tangible benefits for participating organisations, supporting UK innovation priorities, and ensuring responsible stewardship of public funding. The expanded partnership is expected to strengthen the project’s outputs and increase the potential for long-term commercial, societal, and economic impact.
For more information about EMQ+, please contact:
Media Contact
Charlotte Yare
Marketing Manager
InnoPhyte Consulting Ltd
charlotte@innophyte.co.uk
About EMQ+
EMQ+ is developing the expertise required to produce high-quality, disease-free pre-programmed strawberry propagules with assured high-cropping potential throughout the year. Partners are working on trials that will create the knowledge required to limit the effects of UK weather on production, improve propagule quality, enhance flower initiation, and compare the performance of TCEA-produced propagules with conventionally propagated material. The project will use TCEA systems to deliver disease-free, high-quality propagules and develop precision-growing strategies that improve potential yield while reducing resource use and emissions. The project outputs are expected to include quantified improvements in Class 1 yields, and production efficiencies for our commercial grower partners. This work is supported by an Innovate UK’s grant of ca. £1.8m shared among current partners Berry Gardens Growers, Clock House Farm, Delta-T Devices, Flex Farming, Hugh Lowe Farms, InnoPhyte Consulting, Linton Growing, Niab, Blaise Plant Company, and University of Reading (ex-lead: Vertical Future; previous partner in the project: Cocogreen).
About InnoPhyte Consulting
InnoPhyte Consulting is a one-stop solution for scientific expertise, catering to industries across Agri-Tech, Food Science, Agriculture and Horticulture. From experimental design to grant writing and market analysis, we’ve got you covered. Our services include: Science as a Service (Experimental Design, Data Analysis, Data Visualisation, Life Cycle Analysis (LCA), Report Writing, Literature Review), Project Management and Market Analysis (Research, Competitor Analysis, Consumer Demographics, Strategic Decision Support).
About Flex Farming Ltd
Flex Farming journey started in 2019 in response to growing challenges facing the UK soft fruit sector, including increasing pressure on seasonal production, plant health, labour availability, and the resilience of domestic food supply chains. Our vision is to transform strawberry production through Total Controlled Environment Agriculture (TCEA), enabling sustainable, year-round cultivation that is independent of weather conditions and other external disruptions.
It quickly became evident that TCEA offered a significant opportunity to strengthen UK food security by providing a reliable source of locally grown strawberries throughout the year. By producing closer to the point of consumption, reducing dependence on imported fruit, and enabling greater control over plant health and production quality, TCEA has the potential to create a more resilient and sustainable supply chain for growers, retailers, and consumers.
Flex Farming has developed an advanced controlled-environment production platform that optimises the use of land, water, energy, and labour while delivering consistent yields and premium fruit quality. Our ongoing focus is to further enhance the sustainability, scalability, and resilience of UK strawberry production, helping to secure future supply in the face of increasing environmental, economic, and supply chain challenges.
About Niab
Niab’s operation at East Malling in Kent is the UK’s largest centre for horticultural R&D, undertaking work in perennial and clonally-propagated crops. It provides scientific research, technical services and practical advice to improve the yield, efficiency and resilience of crop production across the sector.
About University of Reading
The University of Reading is a research-intensive university founded in 1926. Home to more than 23,000 students, the University is proud to welcome staff and students from all over the world at our award-winning campuses in Reading, Henley-upon-Thames, Johannesburg, and Iskandar.
About Berry Gardens Growers Ltd
Founded in 1972, Berry Gardens Growers Ltd (BGGL) is the UK’s leading berry and stone fruit production co-operative, with members located across the country from Kent to Scotland. Strawberries are the biggest berry grown and the co-operative’s growers produce them from mid-March until November using a range of varieties and growing techniques. Berry Gardens’ growers have benefitted from the increased demand for soft fruit in recent years, which has been driven by the health trend, improved varieties, and greater demand for British-grown produce.
About Blaise Plants
Blaise Plants propagates soft fruit plants for UK growers serving the demanding retail market, and works with a number of breeding programmes.
About Hugh Lowe Farms
Hugh Lowe Farms is an innovative and long-established fruit growing business in Mereworth, Kent. Run by the same family for 5 generations, HLF focuses on meeting market demands for quality berries, and on sustainable growing practices.
About Clock House Farms
Clock House Farm (CHF) is a family-run grower based in Coxheath, Kent that have been farming for over 100 years. CHF team are well-respected in the soft-fruit industry internationally as innovators, and producers of high-quality berries, with commercial experience of growing in polytunnels, CEA and TCEA growing systems. The business grows 1,750 tonnes of strawberries each year across five soft fruit production sites, and it supplies all the UK’s major retailers.
About Linton
Established in 2019, Linton Growing is a vertically integrated plant growing company that specifically focuses on varietal development and propagation and supplies plants to CHF. Linton Growing is based on a 30-ha site and is developing protocols to improve plant quality and security of supply of strawberry plants to CHF.
About Delta-T
Delta-T design, manufacture (in the UK) and sell environmental science instrumentation in over 80 countries and many products are utilised by researchers to investigate the effects of climate change on crop growth and forecasting, and resource use such as water, fertilisers and light.
About Innovate UK
Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), is the UK’s innovation agency. It supports businesses in developing and realising the potential of new ideas, helping to drive productivity, economic growth, and societal benefit across the UK.
You can view the original press release here.
