Oishii
Manufacturer · Jersey City ·
Indoor vertical farm growing sublime, intense, and transformative strawberries
Indoor vertical farm growing sublime, intense, and transformative strawberries
"Based in Jersey City, New Jersey, the company grows its berries on what the company touts as "the world’s largest indoor vertical strawberry farm." Founded in 2016 by Hiroki Koga, an agriculture consultant and entrepreneur from Tokyo, and Brendan Somerville, a former United States Marine Corps intelligence officer who also has a background in agriculture entrepreneurship, the farms are designed, as Koga explains on the company site, to integrate "centuries-old Japanese farming techniques" with high-tech, highly controlled farming environments — meaning these berries are pampered and bred to be as delicious as they would be if they were grown in the foothills of Japan’s Hida mountain range. The fruit earned notoriety as "that $50 strawberry," praised for a complex, slightly floral, and creamy flavor profile; its high Vitamin C content and exfoliating salicylic acid have been leveraged in a limited-edition skincare collaboration with a luxury brand, whose promotional copy promises to "boost your glow" and to leave you "smelling like you just woke up in a dewy spring field filled with strawberries." The limited-release body wash was sold only in three-packs on the brand's site (those three-packs sold out there) but remains available through other beauty retailers; smaller berry bundles are still sold on Instacart for around $11, a marked decrease from the former $50-per-berry price. Fans have speculated about more crossovers (examples mentioned include a lip-balm tie-in and a D.S. & Durga candle collaboration, with the latter house's Pasta Water candle cited as precedent)." - Francky Knapp
"I see that Oishii, the agriculture company behind those famously expensive strawberry boxes, has cut its prices by 60 percent as it aims to expand and make the berries more commercially available; the upscale fruit—grown in vertical indoor farms in New Jersey—has become a favorite of Michelin-starred restaurants, and a box of eight is now listed at $20 on Oishii’s website (still $2.50 a berry)." - Luke Fortney
"A pioneering indoor vertical strawberry farm in the U.S. that aims to produce consistently optimal berries through meticulous, seed-to-packaging control. The team tests over 20 micro-environments and propagates seedlings based on results, replicates the climate of the Japanese Alps, and enforces five levels of sanitization before entry; berries ripen in 30–40 days and are harvested at peak ripeness by highly trained staff. Each fruit is delicately cut, visually inspected for bruising, weighed, and documented, with bruised fruit diverted to restaurants for purees and sauces; harvested berries are cold-packaged and subjected to a BRIC test (the farm’s berries measure about 12 BRICS versus the typical 4–7). The operation is also the first vertical farm to successfully control bees in a fully closed environment so they can pollinate naturally, and while the technology is expensive, it reduces reliance on changing climates, avoids harsh outdoor labor conditions, and delivers consistent size, flavor, and texture." - Terri Ciccone
"Based in Kearny, New Jersey, Oishii grows specialty “Omakase berries” in a vertical-farm warehouse from Japanese seeds brought to the New York area by co-founder and CEO Hiroki Koga; the company spent years researching agriculture, vertical farming, and strawberry cultivation to recreate the foothills of the Japanese Alps inside a controlled environment so the berries consistently hit ideal sugar levels of about 13–14 brix (versus the typical 5–6 brix), are plucked at peak ripeness by trained farmers, transferred by hand to restaurants the same day without pesticides, and are available year-round—the business began with restaurants in 2018 after Koga and Brendan Somerville built a New Jersey warehouse in 2017—and Oishii sells a carton of eight strawberries in a sushi-style box for $50 that includes delivery to a World Trade Center pick-up and a tasting with an Oishii team member." - Devorah Lev-Tov
"Perhaps you follow luxury fruit news, and you are familiar with Oishii Berry’s Omakase Strawberry, which is a strawberry unlike any other berry that exists. The company website tries to explain, but it is difficult, because there is no known comparison: They are “an experience like no other.” They are “so pure, so intense, and so sublime” that they are “transformative.” They are also, at a minimum, $5 each, unless you want the large model, in which case, they are $6.25 apiece." - Rachel Sugar
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