We are excited to share that Monday was the Grand Opening for Reservoir Farms first location in Salinas. There were over 300 RSVPs as of last Friday and I am writing this before driving down for the Grand Opening, so we expect several hundred people to come by and support the launch. Salinas Mayor Dennis Donohue and Western Growers President and CEO Dave Puglia will be joining the event for keynote remarks.

The Grand Opening is a big milestone for Salinas Valley agriculture and AgTech. Growers will now have a place that provides startups with commercially grown acreage across the key crops that make Salinas Valley, including leafy greens, strawberries, and many others that the growers and startups will specify. Reservoir Farms has been working closely with my Western Growers colleague Ben Palone and I for over two years to help make the Grand Opening a reality. What WG members want more than anything is successful startups who can prove their products work and that they work in a way that improves grower economics, often around labor costs. Reservoir Farms helps by providing both the acreage and the technology validation stages needed to make sure products work as advertised. Big thanks to Naturipe and Tanimura & Antle for providing the growing work to make sure the acreage is built right so that growers and startups can trust it.

Startups also get several huge benefits. At launch, there will be 12 paying members startups at Reservoir Farms. They will get shared R&D space, shared acreage (as mentioned, commercially grown), shared equipment (huge thanks to our friends at John Deere for providing some nice looking green tractors!), and shared office space at both the Reservoir Farms location and the WG Center for Innovation and Technology downtown. This will save the startups significant amounts of time and money as they build and get ready to commercialize their technology solutions. Many of the original solutions are for automation, so you can expect to see a lot of robots and drones in the ground and in the air just west of Salinas off highway 68. They will be testing regularly. There will be regular field demonstrations. There will be meetings to get feedback from growers on what’s working and what needs some more work. Ideally, Reservoir Farms helps some startups save enough time and money that they are able to get to commercialization faster and with less capital required. If more startups are making it through to commercialization, that is a win for the startups, WG members, and Reservoir Farms.

Monday was two years in the making but represents a huge step forward for Salinas. In addition to Salinas, Reservoir Farms is hard at work on two additional locations – Merced and Sonoma. By the end of 2026, all three locations will be open and serving Reservoir Farms startup members with support from WG members. Startups will be able to choose the right location for their solution based on the crops and growers they are building their solutions for, so look for more news to come. It has taken a great mix of public and private funding to get Reservoir Farms to this point, and Western Growers is in active discussions on the right way to increase our commitment and deepen the partnership.