An open letter as Plenty CEO

By Arama Kukutai

Dear valued customers, team members and community:

Firstly, thank you for welcoming me officially as Plenty’s new CEO! I look forward to this next phase of growth for the company.

There is no denying our existing food supply is fragile, strained and unsustainable. Indoor agriculture has long promised a solution to the challenges facing traditional growing fresh produce, including solving year round supply, supply chain disruption, high water use and widespread pesticide and chemical use.

At Plenty, we are rewriting the rules of agriculture. Our technology platform can grow cleaner produce anywhere in the world, all year round, and with unprecedented yield. It has taken Plenty a decade of work to solve the technology and operating challenges in order to build economically viable, scalable farms that can deliver on this promise here in America, and globally in years to come.

2022 is set to be a significant year of growth for Plenty. We are proud to be leading the next great frontier of farming for our team, retailers, growers, and consumers. With our Compton Farm opening this year, Plenty will lay down a huge marker in proving the viability of this new wave in food quality, security and sustainability. In my new role as CEO I hope to continue the company’s strong, mission-driven legacy and to accelerate Plenty’s evolution from R&D to growing the business at scale.

I have been an investor and supported the Board of Directors at Plenty since its early days and have been deeply committed to guiding the company’s growth and progress as an advisor to the founders and team. I’ve been deeply involved in farming and international business throughout my career, here in the US and in my native Aotearoa – New Zealand, which I’m proud to say is a principled leader in developing world class sustainable farming.

I will remain a co-founder and partner at Finistere Ventures and privileged to be a contributor to the evolution of innovative food and agriculture technology.  I want to acknowledge the amazing efforts of the Finistere team and the fantastic portfolio companies of which Plenty is a part.. My focus as CEO at Plenty is to continue building the mission-driven company into a commercial leader that Plenty is becoming. As a team we mean to accelerate the Plenty promise to build sustainable, intelligent farms that deliver healthy, safe and pesticide free produce with premium flavor.

I  had the pleasure of talking to Emily Changat Bloomberg TV about our plans and perspective on Indoor Agriculture – see the clip at: https://bloom.bg/3o4M21V

In the coming weeks, we will be making further announcements of some great progress at Plenty – this is a huge year for the company and Indoor Growing. Kudos to Team Plenty and everyone working to rewrite the rules of agriculture!

I look forward to building on Plenty’s success and to delivering great things in 2022. Thank you for your continued support and partnership as together we build a new future for farming.

Arama