Campo Caribe Brings Large-scale Local Lettuce to Puerto Rico
Nestled in the mountains of Barranquitas, more than 2,000 feet above sea level, a Puerto Rico produce revolution has quietly been taking shape. Four years in the making, Campo Caribe is about to launch a state-of-the-art lettuce production facility under new CEO Aaron Fields, at the helm since mid-August.
For Fields, a CEA-industry veteran whose credentials range from Gotham Greens to Eden Green Technology, the launch is significant on multiple levels. Campo Caribe will bring top-quality, locally produced lettuce to an island where investment and infrastructure in a Puerto Rico-based produce industry was limited — even before Hurricane Maria devasted the island’s crops in 2017. It also represents new opportunities for people and a new chapter in Puerto Rico’s agricultural heritage.
Reflecting on the project’s beginnings, long before his arrival, Fields said, “Puerto Rico was a lot like a microcosm of the U.S. greenhouse industry 10 years ago.” Noting that vendors and workers with greenhouse construction experience were limited, he explains a typical 18-month greenhouse construction timeline took much longer, but the four years were put to good use — making sure the right decisions were made.
Now climate, location and technology are intersecting as the state-of-the art facility approaches its official launch. “It’s amazing that we’re on the precipice of hitting the start button on a five-and-a-half-acre deep water culture, high-tech greenhouse in the tropics, the biggest and best of its kind,” he said.
Island Sustainability and Self-Sufficiency
Until now, Puerto Rico’s modern-day produce offerings are largely limited to imported produce, with iceberg lettuce at the top of the list. While others have tried local lettuce production on the island in the past, the efforts have been largely seasonal and short-lived.
Initial plans for Campo Caribe focus on leafy greens: spring mix and possibly romaine. Herbs may follow behind. Not surprisingly, Fields stressed that self-sufficiency and sustainability are key to success, whatever the crop.
As a result, Campo Caribe invested heavily in a smart power system. “The most limiting factor in Puerto Rico is the power grid. It is rather dismal and still being improved quite a bit, and you never know when you are going to have access to power,” Fields explained.
Campo Caribe built a system to use power intelligently and sustainably, then added a large backup generator for consistency. The site also includes a large processing facility, office space, packing and enough cooler storage for four days.
The sustainability-minded operation also boasts robust chiller and ozone systems, and a 350,000-gallon underground reservoir that collects rainwater and feeds all the facility’s ponds.
But arguably Campo Caribe’s most interesting feature is the new greenhouse, designed to be an open-air facility. The Cravo greenhouse with its fully retractable roof and walls, in stark contrast to the increasingly enclosed CEA environments in the United States, was a major shift, even for someone like Fields who has grown in multiple, varied U.S. climates.
“If you learn how to use it and kind of relearn climate management with a very active building, it’s a really good system in the right environment. So I came to adopt it as this new, great learning experience for me,” he shared.
The system can be wide open, catching the breeze at 2,000 feet — where benefits include a little thinner air, lower humidity and more consistent conditions. “It’s actually very beneficial to leafy greens and herb growing. You just have to reeducate yourself on the things that you’ve used in the past to mitigate climate control,” Fields added.
Puerto Rico Market Assessment
Once Fields satisfied his initial question of whether the facility could grow lettuce, his next concern was whether he could sell it and make it affordable: “I could grow the best lettuce in the world, but if nobody buys it, it doesn’t matter.”
He explained that many of the same patterns seen in U.S. produce are seen in Puerto Rico, but they’re amplified on the island. The oft-repeated statistics about the 3,000-mile salad, as lettuce from Salinas and Yuma makes its way to stores across the U.S., takes on new meaning here.
“That’s very real here also, but now it’s a 4,000-mile salad. It’s not even a salad. You’re getting five days from the West Coast to the East Coast, five days from the East Coast to Puerto Rico, two days at the port, and then maybe it gets to the store. You see it in the product,” Fields explained, noting that two-week-old butterhead in a clamshell — if it makes it to the shelf — doesn’t fare well against iceberg.
Campo Caribe’s research concluded that a real market exists for their product, but education is critical. “So now our mission shifts a little because it’s not just growing this and making it good and then providing it to people who obviously would like this,” he said. “Sometimes they don’t even understand that this is what lettuce is, or this is what it can be, or the flavor and the value that they’re missing out on.”
With three and a half million people on the island, Fields expects to sell “a good amount” of spring mix per capita. Distributors, restaurants, schools and other institutions want better, fresher options here. He also believes that national pride and the idea of self-sustainable local lettuce produced on the island resonates with its inhabitants. “You start to get this real belief that this is a greater thing,” he added.
Aside from Puerto Rico’s natural beauty and his first CEO role, Fields said that the passion of the Campo Caribe team drew him to where he is now. “I have this rare and raw opportunity to help a team that’s passionate and smart and really dedicated, to help create a culture of a team that builds success in this great industry, and that’s really what I want to do,” he said.
The Campo Caribe facility is expected to be fully operational in January 2025, with the first true harvest and available product soon after.