The most talked-about strawberry in the world right now does not come from a field. Oishii, founded in 2016, made its name selling the Omakase Berry, a Japanese-variety strawberry grown entirely indoors, for close to fifty dollars a tray in New York. It sold out anyway.
Investors noticed. Oishii has now raised around 370 million dollars, including a 150 million dollar Series C, and operates a 237,500 square foot smart farm in New Jersey with robotics, a solar field and its own water purification. Its berries have moved from chef's-table novelty to shelves in 18 US states and its first international market, Toronto.
The lesson is not the price tag. It is that flavour and consistency, delivered every single week of the year, changed what buyers believe a strawberry can be. When the growing environment is controlled, sweetness is not a matter of luck or season. It is a specification.
That is precisely the model Sheba Berry is building in Ethiopia: vertical, sealed, AI-tuned growing, replicating a system already proven with our South Korean technology principal, with the GCC and Africa's premium tables as the first destination. The world has shown it will pay for the perfect berry. We intend to grow it closer to where it is eaten.
Reported figures via company announcements and trade press coverage of Oishii.
Ask us how a controlled harvest translates to your menu, cabin or counter.