Soli Organic expands footprint with new Texas facilitySoli Organic expands footprint with new Texas facility
June 27, 2024

In early June Virginia-based Soli Organic Inc., a leader in the indoor production of organic culinary herbs, opened a new state-of-the-art facility in San Antonio, Texas, to better serve its customers in that region.

Matt Ryan, CEO, Soli Organic
Chief Executive Officer Matt Ryan said the facility is the first soil-based vertical farm in Texas and it marks a continuation of Soli Organic’s effort to shift capacity from field grown to indoor farming. For most of the company’s organic herb lineup, he said controlled environment agriculture (CEA) offers efficiencies and resource savings that just can’t be matched in a field-grown environment.
“CEA offers huge benefits in water and land usage,” Ryan said. “We use 90% less water and 99% less land per food unit.”
He did note that the company will continue to grow its herbs in both environments as there are some products that are well served by field grown production, such as lemongrass and bay leaves. Overall, however, the march toward indoor, soil-based growing will continue as it offers so much more control over environmental issues. “Good luck growing basil outdoors in January,” Ryan quipped, articulating the quality advantages to Soli Organic’s indoor farming model.
More space, more technology
The new Texas facility covers 140,000 square feet, which includes 100,000 square feet of production space, with six vertical layers of growing capacity, and 40,000 square feet for processing and packing. This new indoor vertical farm utilizes pioneering technology, which purports to enhance regional food security with locally grown produce.
Ryan said the company’s unique soil-based indoor growing system efficiently uses automation, industry-leading lighting, precision organic fertigation and vertical and horizontal space for the highest quality and yield, along with a more efficient use of inputs. He added that using soil as a medium has an advantage over hydroponic CEA facilities as it works well with organic inputs, which can be a challenge for water-centric, indoor farming.
Furthermore, Ryan pointed out that the additional capacity allows Soli Organic, to meet the increasing needs of its current customers as well as presenting opportunities to service new customers.
He revealed that, with this expansion, Soli Organic, which is headquartered in Harrisonburg, Virginia, can completely cover two-thirds of the country from the East to the near West with its indoor-grown organic product. The Texas facility will serve Texas and its neighboring states. But Ryan allowed that Soli Organic continues to look at additional sites for CEA farms, which will allow it to eventually become a coast-to-coast supplier of both its indoor- and outdoor-grown products.
The Texas farm will cultivate more than 10 different crops, including a diverse range of organic herbs including basil, cilantro and mint, plus organic salad greens such as spinach, arugula and romaine lettuce.
“This operation is pivotal to our national growth strategy, exemplifying our commitment to making organic produce accessible through a scalable, sustainable and profitable model," said Ryan in a company press release.
Soli Organic currently has more than a dozen growing operations across the United States, featuring field grown crops, indoor production or both. The press release noted the company is actively scouting farm locations in the Northeast to expand its existing distribution network—now more than 20,000 stores nationwide—including most of the top 20 retailers. Ryan indicated that an announcement on further expansion should come in the not-too-distant future.
Organic herbs thrive
Soli Organic’s top executive said the herb category has been on a long-term upward trend, recently fueled by the stay-at-home cooking movement during the coronavirus. Ryan said that the reopening of restaurants post pandemic led to a slight downturn in sales to the home cook, but that has reversed itself once again. And he noted that organic herbs are doing especially well as many retailers do not like to twin line the category and often carry only organic herbs, especially for the more specialty herbs. These botanicals, Ryan said, pack a powerful nutritional punch on a per-ounce basis, with organic herbs scoring even higher in the minds of consumers.
“We continue to see organics thrive,” he added, noting that organic herbs command about 75% of category sales.
“This operation is pivotal to our national growth strategy, exemplifying our commitment to making organic produce accessible through a scalable, sustainable and profitable model." - Matt Ryan
Ryan revealed that basil, cilantro and thyme remain the leaders in the category but there have also been other herbs gaining popularity. “We have experienced an uptick in both dill and Thai basil,” he said. “Across the board, we’ve seen increases in herb sales.”
Ryan reported that the average retailer tends to have a fresh herb set that features 10-12 items, with the makeup of that list varying by geography and the retailer’s individual preferences. He noted that whenever a specific herb registers a spike in sales, it usually is reflective of increased usage by restaurants and celebrity chefs. “That’s where the uptick in dill sales came from,” he said, noting that basil was also popularized that way. “Before the 1980s, basil was not a big seller. Then the caprese salad became popular and basil sales went through the roof.”