Food Industry
Welcome to the forefront of food innovation! In the High Coast region, we combine sustainable practices with cutting-edge technology to create a place where future farmers of all sorts root and grow. Together with the local eco-system of innovation and foodtech we’re exploring new circular solutions and industrial symbioses, turning the High Coast into a hub for sustainable and locally-produced food solutions.
Land-based fish farming
Great freshwater supply, green energy at competitive prices and good opportunities to join an industrial symbiosis make our region the perfect spot for land-based fish farming.
Greenhouse farming
Low-cost energy, available land and good chances for industrial symbiosis, using the surplus heat from other industries. Our region has a lot to offer future greenhouse farmers.
Vertical farming
As the home to several startups in urban and vertical farming, we have the know-how and support to get you started. Join one of Västernorrland’s most promising clusters!
Business opportunity
Greenhouse farming
Right now, a large number of industrial establishments create unique opportunities for partners willing to set up shop in Västernorrland. In addition to affordable, 100% green energy, good freshwater supply and available land, the possibility to be part of an industrial symbiosis offers new advantages. By utilizing for example excess heat and oxygen from a hydrogen plant, greenhouse farmers can get a higher yield at a lower price – while saving the environment in more than one way.
One of the early establishments is Vita Hydrokultur, a British-owned company that aims to build a greenhouse facility in Alby, Ånge municipality close to the planned hydrogen plant. Vita Hydrokultur focuses on plants used in cosmetics and health industries, and will possibly use residual streams from both the hydrogen plants and the adjacent fish farm.
What’s your spot in the new industrial landscape? Get in touch to know more!
A high coast company
Agtira
Agtira is one of Sweden’s biggest greenhouse farming innovators, with the idea to bring home vegetable production to cut transports, save land and sell better-tasting vegetables. With greenhouses built in parking lots and other urban locations, cucumbers and tomatoes can be harvested and sold in hours, transported just a few meters instead of 3 000 kilometers or more.
The brainchild of local innovator Pecka Nygårds, Agtira originated in Härnösand and grew rapidly, establishing the High Coast as a knowledge center for foodtech and urban farming. Agtira was introduced at the Nasdaq stock exchange in 2023 and continues to establish greenhouses all across Sweden.
DID YOU KNOW Agtira is also developing a full-featured aquaponics system, where cucumbers and Atlantic salmon are cultivated in a closed-circuit system.
A high coast company
Big Akwa
Through the start-up Big Akwa, one of the founders of Agtira tackles the problem of the forest industries’ environmental pollution in an innovative way by establishing a fish farm adjacent to a paper or pulp plant. In the solution, sustainable fish farming constitutes a bio filter that cleans the emissions from the industry which in turn supplies nutrients to the fish farm. In this way, a cleaner marine environment is created.
Big Akwa is currently in the process of opening a large-scale fish farming establishment at Alby industrial site.
A high coast company
Hernö Gin
Hernö Gin is a world-leading producer of artisanal gin. The distillery has won 106 titles in the world’s leading competitions for spirits and is thus the world’s most award-winning gin. For example, Hernö gin was named Gin Producer of the Year in the World and the World’s Best Gin for Gin & Tonic in 2020.
Hernö Gin is currently building a boutique hotel in the High Coast, set to open in the beginning of 2025. Until then, you can visit Hernö Gin Bar in Södermalm, Stockholm.
Did you know that Hernö Gin was elected the world’s best gin for the third time in 2023, making it the most awarded gin in the world.
#1 Disruptive innovation from the region
Fish feed from the forest
At research center RISE Processum, researchers have developed protein from forestry waste material, Now the re-searchers are taking the next step to make fish feed from the single-cell proteins that have so far been produced. The background is that fish farming is expected to become more and more important in the future and the need for fish feed is increasing. With the help of food made from twigs, branches and other waste products from the forest, fish farming will become more environmentally friendly, primarily due to the demand for fish food made from fish and soy flour being reduced.
