News » 20.10.2026 - Iribov expands vertical farming operations: "We want to harden off more plants ourselves"

"We've grown quite rapidly," says Iribov CEO Eloy Boon. That's an understatement. What began in 1992 in the loft of a bulb shed in West Friesland has grown into an international company with operations in several countries and well over six hundred employees. Growth has been particularly rapid in recent years.

The tissue culture specialist operates across several continents. In its hometown of Heerhugowaard, construction work on new greenhouses is currently underway. A new greenhouse with extensive vertical farming facilities is being built, following the completion of another greenhouse at a different site in Heerhugowaard last year.

Aerial view of the new Iribov building in Heerhugowaard. Photo: West Country Media

Hardening
The new construction projects in the Netherlands are primarily related to the further cultivation of tissue-cultured plants, a process known as hardening off. This process currently takes place partly in greenhouses, but Iribov intends to move it entirely to multi-layer climate chambers in the future.

Six years ago, Iribov began exploring the possibilities of multi-layer cultivation. A year later, the company invested in its first climate chamber. The decision followed a visit to Green Simplicity, where the company saw what was possible.

"We tested several crops in a climate chamber using a cultivation protocol for chrysanthemums," Eloy explains. "In every case, the hardening-off process went better than in our greenhouse. We then quickly decided to purchase a climate chamber ourselves. We've been using it for several years now, and we've seen that the concept works. Hardening off is faster in a vertical farm, plant quality is better, and there is less wastage."

Iribov first tested tissue culture in vertical farms before deciding to scale up.

Tissue culture for new crops
Iribov has traditionally specialised in tissue culture for ornamental crops. In recent years, however, the company has increasingly expanded its focus to other crops.

The first additions were food crops, including soft fruit and the cultivation of potato minitubers. Iribov is now also making progress with tissue culture for crops such as sugarcane, grown for bioethanol, and fibre crops used in the manufacture of building materials. "In ten years' time, I think our turnover from tissue culture will be divided equally between ornamental plants, food crops, and crops grown for biomass or secondary metabolites."

More and more new crops are being added to the tissue culture programme.

Scaling up
The new facility currently under construction covers 1.6 hectares. It will house three climate chambers, but there is room for further expansion, Eloy explains. "We can expand to 11 chambers. Each chamber can hold one million plants. With the current expansion, we'll soon be able to harden off three million plants at the same time. On average, a cycle takes five weeks." He calculates: "If we complete ten cycles a year, that's 30 million plants. With 11 chambers, that's theoretically more than 100 million plants."

These are substantial figures, but Iribov's CEO appears unfazed, judging by the ease with which he calculates them. For the tissue culture specialist, large volumes are nothing unusual. This year alone, for example, the company expects to cultivate 60 million plants.

New construction in Heerhugowaard, status: week 39.

New construction in Ghana and Brazil
A large proportion of cultivation now takes place abroad, where labour costs are lower and where Iribov was able to acquire several laboratories around fifteen years ago. Iribov has operated a site in Macedonia for 25 years, and the company, which originated in West Friesland, also cultivates plants in Ghana and Brazil. "A new nursery became operational in Ghana in May. Eventually, it will be able to employ 500 people and produce 80 million plants." Iribov has been active in Brazil for two years, and construction work is also underway there.

Iribov in Macedonia

Plants from Macedonia and Ghana are supplied worldwide, primarily to Europe, East Africa, and North America. In Brazil, cultivation is focused on the domestic market. Only a small proportion of Iribov's plants, around 2 to 3 per cent, are cultivated in the Netherlands, Eloy explains. "In the Netherlands, the emphasis is on producing starting material, developing cultivation protocols, and providing services to other companies, such as plant breeding firms."

Iribov in Ghana

New genomic techniques
The new facility in Heerhugowaard is expected to be completed in spring 2027. Over the coming period, construction work will focus mainly on installing equipment inside the greenhouse. Iribov is investing heavily in the new facility, including in the automation of the vertical farm, its CEO acknowledges. "We want to harden off more plants ourselves. This works better in an indoor farm. Because it requires a substantial investment, it's essential that the vertical farm is fully utilised throughout the year. That's not possible for customers who only have a seasonal product. That's why they can't make these investments, whereas we can. In doing so, we're helping our customers."

Once the new facility becomes operational, space will be freed up elsewhere at Iribov's Heerhugowaard site. The greenhouses currently used for hardening off can then be converted into specialised areas for the division of Iribov that provides services to plant breeding companies.

Glazing of the greenhouse, built by Prins Group

Eloy explains that Iribov has been preparing for the introduction of new genomic techniques, such as CRISPR-Cas, in Europe in recent years. "We've applied for a licence to work with these techniques in our greenhouses. This will allow us to start helping companies with new genomic techniques. We already have examples ready for several crops, including tomatoes, potatoes, petunias, and cabbages. We've developed these in-house. We'll soon be ready to bring them to market. We'll then be able to help breeding companies use new genomic techniques to develop new varieties."

Iribov also intends to offer a similar service from Macedonia in the future. However, following a period of rapid growth, including two new buildings in the Netherlands, a new laboratory in Ghana, and a new laboratory in Brazil, the company's immediate priority is to ensure that all its new facilities are running smoothly, says the man who already had ambitions to "build something bigger" back in the 1990s. "We can handle everything now. And we need to keep it that way."
 

Source: www.floraldaily.com

« Back