The produce company AppHarvest is nearing completion of three new growing facilities in central Kentucky. The company’s first facility was built in Morehead in northeastern Kentucky. The new indoor growing operations are in Richmond, Berea and Somerset.
Travis Parman is the chief communications officer with AppHarvest. He said each new facility will be growing something specific.
“We expect to open Berea, which is going to be a salad greens facility, we’re opening a facility in Somerset that is going to be dedicated to strawberries with seasonal cucumbers, and then we’re opening another tomato facility in Richmond.”
He said these facilities will be able to put out a lot of produce.
“Berea is 15 acres of salad greens, so when you start talking about 15 acres of salad greens that’s really dense and a lot of productions. Somerset is going to be 30 acres and Richmond is going to be another 60 acres. So it’s basically a copy and paste of what we are already doing in Morehead.”
Parman says the Berea facility is 90% finished, Somerset is 85% finished and the Richmond facility is 80% finished. The facilities are expected to be open by the end of the year.
Once all three are completed, AppHarvest hopes to employ around one thousand Kentuckians.
