€80 million greenhouse complex planned in Slovenia

July 8, 2024

Slovenia‘s northeastern-most region will become home to the largest greenhouse vegetable production complex in the country in an investment valued at €80 million.

The project, named GreenGardens, plans to build greenhouses on a 22-hectare plot at Prekmurje. Production is set to begin in 2026.

Project partners Matej Bandelj and Gregor Počivavšek said the high-tech sustainable production could increase Slovenia’s self-sufficiency for some types of vegetables by more than 10 percent.

They are planning to grow lettuce on around five hectares, while offering the remaining 10 hectares of net production surfaces to other interested growers, who have already expressed interest.

As reported by the Slovenia Times, the project is designed to maximize the use of renewable energy sources available on the site by leveraging geothermal and solar energy, constant low groundwater temperatures and technologically-advanced greenhouse solutions.

The greenhouse zone will be developed in three phases with first production set to start at the end of 2025 or the beginning of 2026. The entire project is valued at roughly €80 million and is to create between 100 and 150 jobs.

Aside from net production surfaces, the facility will also include rainwater storage tanks, paved transport areas, cold storage, engine rooms and other technical rooms.

The GreenGardens website states tha the project “provides a solution to significantly increase food security and Slovenian vegetable self-sufficiency for at least a few types of vegetable crops. In the municipality of Dobrovnik, more specifically between Dobrovnik and Žitkovci, a greenhouse zone will be developed on a 220 thousand square metre plot of land, where different types of vegetables can be produced in a sustainable way and using renewable energy sources.”

Project partners Matej Bandelj and Gregor Počivavšek are supported by Boštjan Bandelj, the owner of Belektron, a specialized carbon emissions allowance trading company, who bought the land through the company Skrinja BB at an auction in August last year. The three of them will jointly own the company that will manage the GreenGardens Dobrovnik zone.

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