Agritecture recently interviewed Katia Zacharaki, an experienced agronomist and UK urban agriculture leader, to discuss the current state and future of UK agriculture, agtech adoption, and the commercial potential of controlled environment strawberry production.
Katia is an experienced Agronomist, with strong technical and business experience in soil-less production of strawberries, micro-greens and herbs. Holds a MSc in Agricultural Engineering and a MBA in Agribusiness, and before here entrance in the Urban Farming industry she spent some time teaching at undergraduate Agriculture and Countryside Management degrees. Since 2019 she is part-time PhD student at Harper Adams University. Her PhD is focused on the optimisation of LED technologies for strawberries in TCEA (Total Controlled Environment Agriculture).
She has been involved in industrial research with UK leading organisations, and her main research interests are artificial light in CEA/TCEA growing environments, agronomical and physiological aspects of indoor production of strawberries and vertical farming food production systems.
Katia is keen to support the Urban Agriculture industry, promote the benefits of incorporation of technologies like Vertical Farming in the food systems and educate the public. To achieve so she Volunteers as Director of Communications for UKUAT (UK Urban Agricultural Technologies).
Today Katia has now opened her own consulting bukatsiness to help more AgriTech companies achieve their goals.
While I don’t work across all of agriculture, the general sentiment is that margins remain under significant pressure. Farmers need to be extremely resourceful, creative, and well-organised to remain operationally and financially viable.
In horticulture, we’re seeing that smaller farms are disproportionately under strain. Many are being acquired by larger businesses that benefit from economies of scale, enabling them to remain more competitive.
These larger businesses currently hold an advantage in terms of cost structure, resilience, and investment capacity.
What is working? Businesses that can scale effectively, streamline operations, and leverage technology for efficiency are faring better. Additionally, those with strong market access and diversified customer bases appear more resilient.
Post-Brexit, the biggest challenges for innovation and investment in UK agriculture stem from uncertainty, labour shortages, and fragmented support for commercialisation. The shift away from the CAP has left farmers without long-term clarity on support schemes. Evolving programmes like ELMs and the Farming Innovation Programme bring uncertainty around timelines and eligibility, making it difficult to plan or invest in innovation.
There’s also a disconnect between early-stage R&D funding and support for commercialisation. While the UK backs agri-tech research, there’s limited structured support for scaling or on-farm deployment, especially for SMEs.
Persistent labour shortages, particularly in horticulture, undermine adoption of both conventional and high-tech solutions. Even automation needs a baseline workforce to function.
Trade friction with the EU, and the risk of lower-standard imports via new trade deals, add further uncertainty to supply chains and market access, dampening confidence to invest.
Finally, UK policy could better align with global sustainability and ESG goals. Clearer incentives for climate-smart practices and resilient food systems would attract more forward-looking investment.
We’ve seen some commercial success stories, such as GrowUp Farms with their "Unbeleafable" salad line. They began with aquaponics, later pivoted their model, and have now established a scalable vertical farming operation that supplies major retailers.
However, there have also been high-profile failures; this year, James Food Company, one of the UK’s early vertical farming pioneers, filed for bankruptcy. The reasons aren’t public, but it reflects the complexity and fragility of the business model.
It's critical to emphasise that vertical farming isn’t the solution for every market. There are still strong opportunities in CEA through glasshouses and polytunnels, depending on the specific crop, market gap, and project team. Feasibility studies should precede any infrastructure investment, as the right format might well be a high-tech glasshouse instead of a vertical system.
For strawberries, both propagation and fruiting present promising opportunities, provided financial projections are grounded in reality and not over-estimating outputs (yield and fruit quality. Horticulture is a tight-margin sector, high ROI expectations must be tempered.
In urban markets like London, there is potential for high-value, high-quality strawberry production, both for mainstream supply chain gaps and premium niche products (as seen with Oishii in the US). On the propagation side, the market is already there. Growers are facing increasing pest and disease pressures, and controlled propagation environments offer a solution. But we need to find the right collaboration to tap into this market opportunity, as there are high barriers to entry. We need to remember that farming is the livelihood of those farmers and getting them involved in anything new requires to develop trust and to based on evidence.
Evidence. Tangible, validated results are essential. You need robust case studies, on-farm demonstrations, and clear value propositions. If you believe in your product, make it easy for the customer to believe in it too. Show them, not just tell them.
Second, collaboration is key. Start-ups often try to do everything themselves, including reinventing technologies that already exist. This usually costs time, money, and focus. Partnering with established players can accelerate progress and allow founders to concentrate on their core innovations.
Finally, company culture plays a surprisingly pivotal role. A founder-driven start-up can benefit from energy and discipline early on, but later-stage growth demands empathy, delegation, and adaptability. I’ve seen promising companies falter due to toxic leadership dynamics or an unwillingness to evolve. As the saying goes, “the fish rots from the head.”
You might expected a more fancy response, but the easy access to basic services is still in need. For example:
Note that, unfortunately, a large proportion of UK consumers still lack a clear understanding of what it truly means to eat healthily or how food impacts health. Many believe they do, but their purchasing habits often suggest otherwise. That said, there are promising initiatives working to change this, and we are seeing a gradual shift towards greater awareness of whole foods, sourcing, and food quality.
Agri-food businesses should prioritise shortening and localising their supply chains where possible, to reduce cost volatility and improve resilience. Transparency, traceability, and authenticity are becoming increasingly important to consumers, so clearly communicating your value chain - from inputs to impact - can be a strong market differentiator.
Investing in automation, logistics optimisation, and waste reduction across the value chain can also help protect margins. Finally, businesses should look to align their offerings with evolving dietary trends; such as plant-based options, lower carbon foods, and functional nutrition.
Overall, the UK innovation landscape functions well. While publicly funded projects can be highly competitive, the increasing rigour of the application process has helped raise the quality of funded work.
Organisations like Innovate UK are also becoming more responsive to industry needs. A good example is the recent Precision Breeding call within the Farming Innovation Programme, which was directly shaped by sector input, a real strength of the current system.
IP remains a challenge. While there’s growing openness to collaboration, especially when shared problems require collective solutions, it’s understandable that businesses are cautious about sharing hard-earned knowledge.
In TCEA, particularly for strawberries, this tension is especially pronounced. There are still many “known unknowns,” and start-ups often find themselves doing fundamental research, even when their goal is commercial. That research advances plant science, but the resulting knowledge comes at a cost and is often kept in-house to protect investment.
As a consulting company, we aim to bridge this gap. We’re open about plant growth and agronomy, and actively encourage knowledge exchange. We believe that every conversation moves the sector forward, and remain optimistic about the power of collaborative innovation.
The UK is lagging in agtech adoption primarily due to:
To reverse this, we need:
If we can align production, consumption, and climate goals, the UK can build a food system that’s not only resilient and profitable, but also future-ready.
Founded by Katia Kouloumprouka Zacharaki, InnoPhyte Consulting is dedicated to providing “Science as a Service” for the AgriTech industry. With a focus on (T)CEA, particularly strawberry cultivation, InnoPhyte offers expert support in research and development, data analysis, project management, and grant writing. Whether you’re a start-up looking to scale or an established company seeking specialised expertise, InnoPhyte’s flexible, tailored solutions help accelerate growth and innovation in the agriculture sector.