Businessman Colin Campbell has been methodical in his scheme to establish a vertical-farming centre out of a derelict City building.

Dutch consultants retained to provide expert advice about the proposed operation agree the plan makes sense for an island so reliant on imported food.

Mr Campbell has incorporated Bermuda Vertical Technologies with a view to creating a vertical-farming enterprise in Victoria Hall, the seven-storey office building in Hamilton.

To provide advice, he has retained Delphy, a global consultancy based in the Netherlands with 12 additional offices worldwide.

Company representatives Aad van den Berg and Laura Bautista Jalon — experts in vertical farming — were on island recently to discuss the project with Mr Campbell and Ohio-based Mark Reilly, whose firm is experienced in commercial cultivation and will act as general contractor for the project.

Mr Van den Berg said: “The plans of Colin and Mark seem from my wide experience in the production of food reasonable for Bermuda.

“There is hardly any [agricultural] land, and the island is dependent on food that arrives by ship or plane.

“Vertical farming fits very well with the Bermudian situation.

“In the US, it doesn’t make sense — land outside the city is much cheaper and available.

“Here it is the best solution. There is no other way.”

Ms Bautista Jalon said: “The whole idea is to be able to have access to high-quality, fresh food. Food that not many people are used to having but is normal in other parts of the world.

“That type of quality — every day, available to everybody — is not a luxury product.”

She added: “Vertical farming can bring these good, tasteful varieties — with high nutrients — close to the consumers and so everyone is eating fresh food, not only because of nutrition requirements, but because it tastes good.”

Mr Van den Berg said every country has differing circumstances with regard to food production, but he has noticed one commonality.

He said: “What I see worldwide, following the pandemic, is a lot of countries want to be independent in food production.”

Mr Campbell is taking a careful, deliberate approach towards building a business case for the proposed operation.

The sales agreement for Victoria Hall is conditional upon the plan receiving in-principle approval from the Department of Planning.

That application is in now and an answer is expected in a few weeks.

Of the business case, Mr Campbell said: “We have an expectation that it will make sense, but we have handed over our business plan to Delphy for them to go through, and they will guide us on product and equipment selection.”

If necessary, the plan will be amended based on Delphy’s recommendations.

Mr Campbell said: “Then we will hand the package to KPMG to stress-test the business case.”

Should the project emerge from the process with the go-ahead, Mr Campbell said work will begin to transform Victoria Hall.

He said: “The vertical-farming process is not for the faint of heart. It is expensive to set up and requires terrific resources to run and maintain.”

Solar panels will be installed on the roof and southern face, the interior will be completely stripped out to bare concrete, and new walls, plus floors and columns will be waterproofed.

Fixtures will be assembled for growing, including air conditioning and other mechanical bits.

Mr Campbell said: “It won’t take very long — it will be about supply-chain issues as much as anything else.”

If all goes to plan, the operation should be up and running within a year of the title transfer, Mr Campbell said.

At the 15 to 18-month stage, it should be producing product every week.

Mr Campbell said: “We have spoken to local grocers and they want deliveries two or three days a week. So we will stagger our cultivation of different products to meet the demand.”

He said the challenge is constancy — supplying the same product every week, every month.

Mr Campbell added: “Grocery stores and restaurants depend on product that arrives every week on boats. We are competing against that.”