I’m not at all interested in chatting. I’ve already given enough of my limited lifetime to the ag tech space, and I never want to go back - even via a phone call.
The main problem isn’t growing the fruit - it’s selling and distributing it.
Mastronardi has a monopoly on North American distribution in all but name. (For tomatoes, at least. ) You can grow as much produce as you want, but they’re going to figure out a way to capture any consumer surplus produced by the growers as part of the distribution chain.
That didn’t really matter so much for AppHarvest because they couldn’t profitably produce fruit at Mastronardi’s market rate. But if they did, Mastronardi would figure out a way to shift the market pricing they negotiated with them. Since they control most of the foodservice and retail grocery supply, and have those contracts pretty sewn up, Mastronardi is basically the only way to get fruit into store shelves. That gives them a ton of power negotiating with greenhouses that are otherwise commodities - water and sun go in, tomatoes come on.
The main problem isn’t growing the fruit - it’s selling and distributing it.
Mastronardi has a monopoly on North American distribution in all but name. (For tomatoes, at least. ) You can grow as much produce as you want, but they’re going to figure out a way to capture any consumer surplus produced by the growers as part of the distribution chain.
That didn’t really matter so much for AppHarvest because they couldn’t profitably produce fruit at Mastronardi’s market rate. But if they did, Mastronardi would figure out a way to shift the market pricing they negotiated with them. Since they control most of the foodservice and retail grocery supply, and have those contracts pretty sewn up, Mastronardi is basically the only way to get fruit into store shelves. That gives them a ton of power negotiating with greenhouses that are otherwise commodities - water and sun go in, tomatoes come on.