Our Vision
The Marvella Farms project aims to promote the idea of making Rio de Janeiro a food-sovereign city, meaning the majority of fruits and vegetables consumed are grown within the city’s limits. As well as providing education and resources to those looking to get involved in urban farming.
Our primary focus is the redevelopment of 65,000 sqft area in Rio de Janeiro’s historic port. The area contains underutilized warehouses, which has the potential of being positioned as the epicenter of urban agriculture in the city. Our vision is that this space can be heavily themed by "adaptive reuse of the built-environment" in which we are hoping to demonstrate everything from best practices for sustainable urban agriculture, effective strategies for increasing food security, cost-competitive and scalable models for blight deconstruction and innovation in urban food production.
Our vision is to use urban agriculture as a platform to promote education, sustainability, and community. We plan to produce over 45,000 kilos of fresh high quality produce per month while also redeveloping a local property and its surrounding area as a model of sustainability and urban renewal.
Key Facts
~45,000
Kilograms of fresh produce per month
~2,000
Square meters of crop area
95%
Less water consumption
15
Direct jobs generated
0
Pesticides, herbicides, toxic chemicals
Benefits
Connecting & Amplifying
Involvement and approximation of public, private and community entities; in a high visibility tourist location.
Local Food Market Supply
We envision a local farm market providing high nutrient foods to people, local food banks, schools, and other food access programs.
Long Term Health Benefits
Our hydroponics farm will make nutrient rich food accessible to local consumers and will improve the overall health of the city.
Knowledge Sharing & Job Creation
Our projects include partnership with local schools and NGOs to train, certify, and recruit local interests in state-of-the-art hydroponics and agriculture business.
Youth & Women Empowerment
Our farming operations will attract youth, both men & women, to agriculture as a career, reduce youth unemployment, and provide equal pay jobs for women.
Who We Are
Marvella Urban Farm is a project developed by Agro Fund One, an international investment firm with headquarters in the United States and a regional office in Ribeirão Preto, SP, Brazil. Agro Fund One has years of experience of investing into and developing agricultural projects around the globe. Most recently, Agro Fund One led the development of Marvella Farms, a Controlled Environment Agriculture project in the desert in Djibouti, Africa. The firm is led by entrepreneur and investor Mark Erjavec and managed by Guilherme Moreira, a Brazilian Environmental Engineer involved with sustainable development and regeneration.
As a global citizen, Guilherme has spent the last 10 years making his passion for and commitment to a safer, cleaner and more sustainable world a reality, both in his work and in his daily life. He believes agriculture must adopt the business mindset, technology, automation, precision agriculture, data science and be climate smart. For the last three years he has devoted his time and resources to building modern farms in challenging locations and exploring the latest technologies for agriculture, sharing and training others to adopt “the modern agriculture” to ensure together we can use agriculture as a tool to build the nation we so desire.
Mark Erjavec
Guilherme Moreira
Recent media coverage in Brazil
- Brazilian designs greenhouses for food production in the desert in Africa
- Vegetable garden in the desert: Brazilians will take fresh food to an African country
- Controlled Environment: Brazilian integrates project for hydroponic oasis in Africa
- Sustainable agriculture in the middle of the desert | PodVirtz with Guilherme Moreira (Portuguese)
Timeline
Phase 0 - Inception
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2020Farms concept is born to help bring food security and sovereignty to Northeast Africa. See www.marvellafarms.com.
Phase 1 - Assess
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January 2021Marvella Farms project plans get extended to Brazil
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February 2021Rio de Janeiro is chosen as the location for our first pilot farm
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March 2021Communications with the city of Rio de Janeiro started to secure suitable urban property
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April 2021A viable location in the center of Rio de Janeiro is chosen. Our first farm will be a part of the redevelopment efforts for the Porto Maravilha area.
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June 2021Our website launches
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July 2021Urban site in Rio de Janeiro is defined with CURP and an agreement with the local government is signed
Phase 2 - Model
Detailed project modelling including a phased growth approach, short and medium term revenue growth, expansion schedule, and all capex and locally based opex inputs are finalized.
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August 2021In depth local market analysis is finalized
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September 2021Technical local due diligence is finalized
Phase 3 - Contract
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October 2021Hire local contractors to build the farm and local personnel to run it.
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November 2021Secured off-take agreements are contracted with local institutions.
Phase 4 - Implement
Investor approval is obtained and the project is launched with our pilot greenhouse farm, with rapid expansion planned for within the first six months of operation.
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December 2021Operation starts in our pilot greenhouse farm. Our goal is to have late summer fresh products available for immediate consumption.
Phase 5 - Expand
Join Us
Interested in working with us? We are always interested in hearing from you, whether you are a local looking to make a career in urban farming or an investor exploring opportunities. Reach out to us anytime!
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