Lambhagi grows 500 tonnes of salad a year

Reykjavík greenhouse farm Lambhagi produces about 500 tonnes of salad annually, with automation guiding much of its growing and production, mbl.is reports.

The farm has 13,700 square metres of greenhouses in Úlfarsárdal, where temperature, light and humidity are carefully controlled. Trays of seedlings move along tables on conveyor belts as the plants grow. After about 30 days, workers cut the leaves near the soil and prepare them for packing.

The annual total includes produce from Lambhagi and a second operation at Lundur in Mosfellsdal. Together, the two growing sites cover about 20,000 square metres. Production averages close to two tonnes on each working day.

“Sown and then harvested. It’s like in the Bible,” says Hafberg Þórisson, Lambhagi’s owner and managing director.

Hafberg says his ambition to grow vegetables took shape in 1960, when he was 16 and working on a farm in Borgarfjörður. He heard about Icelanders suffering from scurvy because they lacked vitamin C from vegetables. The story moved him to study horticulture in Norway and later in Iceland.

After returning to Iceland, Hafberg trained as a pilot and looked from the air for a suitable location for a greenhouse business. He received a plot in Úlfarsárdal from Reykjavík City in early 1977 and began growing vegetables outdoors in eight small plastic greenhouses. They were vulnerable to strong winds, so he soon began building sturdier greenhouses and planting trees for shelter.