A review of recent CEA activity highlights a clear concentration around a small group of crops. Leafy greens lead by a wide margin, appearing 26 times across funding rounds, facility expansions, partnerships, closures, and bankruptcies. Tomatoes follow with 16 instances, while microgreens and strawberries each appear 12 times.

This concentration is not accidental. These crops align with established CEA production models, predictable demand, and existing supply chains. However, the data also shows that frequency alone does not correlate with financial stability or long-term viability.

Leafy greens, including lettuce, kale, and mixed leafy categories, remain the backbone of CEA production. Lettuce alone appears six times as a named crop, with kale appearing once and leafy greens broadly referenced across greenhouse and vertical farm operators.

Large-scale greenhouse expansions such as Little Leaf Farms in Pennsylvania and Quebec-based VegPro International underscore continued confidence in leafy greens at scale. At the same time, leafy greens dominate negative outcomes. Bankruptcies and closures involving AeroFarms, Eden Green Technology, Bushel Boy Farms, and Revol Greens all list leafy greens or lettuce as primary crops.

GrowUp Farms’ acquisition following pre-pack administration further illustrates this tension. The company cited “difficulties securing new capital in a challenging controlled environment agriculture investment landscape,” while maintaining that operations and employees would continue under new ownership.

The data suggests that leafy greens are no longer a novelty crop. They are a mature, competitive segment where operational efficiency, cost structure, and balance sheet strength increasingly determine survival.

Microgreens appear 12 times in the dataset, primarily associated with vertical farming operators such as AeroFarms and GoodLeaf Farms. While GoodLeaf secured a $52 million bridge round to support expansion and R&D, AeroFarms appears twice in the data—once for securing new financing and later for bankruptcy.

This pattern highlights a shift in how microgreens are financed. Rather than aggressive greenfield expansion, funding is increasingly defensive, focused on sustaining operations, optimizing production, or refinancing existing assets.

Tomatoes, with 16 recorded instances, are strongly associated with greenhouse solution providers rather than vertical farms. High-capital projects such as Aytekin Group’s 105-hectare hydroponic greenhouse in Kazakhstan and Windset Farms’ 38-acre expansion in Canada reinforce tomatoes’ position as a cornerstone greenhouse crop.

Tomatoes also feature prominently in multi-year research collaborations. Grodan and Signify’s ongoing trials repeatedly demonstrate that energy input can be reduced “without compromising yield or taste,” according to trial summaries. These initiatives are not exploratory but iterative, reflecting confidence in tomatoes as a scalable and refinable crop.

Strawberries appear 12 times, matching microgreens in frequency but showing a different qualitative pattern. Strawberry-related activity spans funding rounds, EU-supported research projects, greenhouse trials, and product launches.

Trials by Grodan, Limgroup, and Delphy ISFC reported yields exceeding 20 kg/m², while KUBO noted that its strawberry systems are already being deployed in Canada and Saudi Arabia following successful trials. Unlike leafy greens, strawberries are rarely associated with closures or insolvencies in the dataset.

Cucumbers (6), peppers (5), aromatics (4), and mushrooms (4) represent a second tier of crop activity. These crops are often bundled with tomatoes or leafy greens in greenhouse expansions or linked to automation initiatives.

Mushrooms, in particular, show a strong association with robotics. Agaricus Robotics and 4AG Robotics both focus on automated harvesting, reflecting labor constraints rather than market uncertainty.

Beyond the top tiers, the dataset includes more than 25 crops that appear only once. These include cotton, saffron, algae, basil, blueberries, dragon fruit, feed, flowers, insects, wheat, rapeseed, and medicinal plants.

These crops are almost exclusively tied to R&D, pilot facilities, or niche commercial launches. Gooddrop’s UK-grown cotton garment and BlueRedGold’s indoor saffron system exemplify this trend. While technically significant, these projects remain isolated and have not yet translated into repeatable scale.

The crop patterns emerging in CEA in 2025 are the result of a market that has entered a phase of economic realism. Performance is no longer driven by technological ambition alone, but by the ability to control costs, stabilize margins, and operate efficiently at scale.

A key driver is the growing divergence between production models. Greenhouse-based systems benefit from structural advantages over vertical farms by relying on natural sunlight for photosynthesis, with artificial lighting used only as a complement. This reduces energy intensity and limits exposure to electricity price volatility, which has become a decisive factor for investors. The same logic applies to climate management. Even in high-tech semi-closed greenhouses, natural ventilation remains a core tool to regulate growing area pressure and humidity levels, reducing reliance on energy-intensive mechanical systems. In contrast, fully enclosed vertical farms depend almost entirely on active lighting, cooling, and dehumidification, making them far more sensitive to energy costs and constraining financial sustainability outside niche use cases.

Project location further reinforces these dynamics. Regions with low-cost, stable electricity, such as hydropower-dominated Quebec, or favorable climates like Mexico’s high-altitude plateaus enable high-tech poly greenhouses with significantly lower energy demand. These geographies improve operational resilience and reduce downside risk, which directly influences capital allocation.

Technology choices also matter more than ever. Systems that improve energetic coefficients of performance (COP), reduce inputs, and integrate automation are now baseline requirements rather than differentiators. Capital is flowing toward crop-specific designs that prioritize yield optimization and labor efficiency over experimental complexity.

Strawberries exemplify this shift. Their expansion in CEA is driven by improved yield control, higher predictability, and reduced exposure to external variables. By tightening control over environmental parameters, producers can stabilize output and meet retail requirements more consistently. In North America, this has accelerated a transition from open-field cultivation to protected and low-tech / low-cost greenhouse production, closely mirroring the evolution previously observed in Europe.

Ultimately, these trends signal a sector moving beyond experimentation toward disciplined optimization, where efficiency, location, and operational fundamentals define long-term viability.

The next phase of CEA development presents a clear divide between experienced operators and newer entrants. The strongest opportunities lie with established producers that have already moved through early-stage failures, operational missteps, and iterative system improvements. In many cases, the most resilient businesses followed a disciplined path: starting at a smaller scale, learning under real commercial pressure, stabilizing yields and costs, and only then expanding. This approach has proven far more durable than rapid, capital-intensive scaling.

Companies that have successfully absorbed these lessons now benefit from a meaningful competitive advantage. They understand crop behavior, system limits, and cost drivers, allowing them to grow with greater confidence and attract capital on more favorable terms. For these players, growth remains achievable, but it will be incremental and data-driven rather than speculative.

At the same time, structural challenges are intensifying. Labor management is becoming a central constraint, particularly in North America and Europe, where immigration policies continue to tighten. Automation and simple, scalable technologies that improve operational efficiency without adding unnecessary complexity will be critical in offsetting workforce limitations and supporting expansion.

Nowadays, trade dynamics (tarifs) add another layer of pressure. Ongoing tariff disputes are disrupting cross-border flows, especially for Mexican producers still recovering from the pandemic and tomato brown rugose virus (ToBRFV) (We did an edition looking at the ToBRFV: ). The need to redirect volumes into North American markets has contributed to price pressure and dumping dynamics, with ripple effects reaching Canada. Even established greenhouse leaders such as Serres Demers are now facing financial stress as a result.

Looking ahead, success will favor operators that combine operational maturity, disciplined scaling, workforce adaptability, and geopolitical awareness in their growth strategies.

CEA is entering a decisive phase where survival and growth are no longer driven by scale or novelty, but by execution. The market is rewarding operators that have endured early failures, optimized systems, and aligned crop choice with energy, geography, and demand realities.

Capital will continue to concentrate around proven crops and greenhouse-led models, while experimental approaches face increasing scrutiny. Trade disruptions, labor constraints, and energy exposure will remain structural headwinds. In this environment, disciplined scaling, operational simplicity, and regional competitiveness will define the next generation of CEA leaders.