Birmingham, AL, Abu Dhabi Global Market, UAE, and Thuwal, Saudi Arabia – 28 April 2020 – Kirchner Group and Red Sea Farms are pleased to announce an agricultural enterprise development collaboration that brings together decades of business creation and operational experience with numerous novel saltwater agricultural technologies for the purpose of enabling local production of fresh fruits and vegetables in fresh-water-constrained regions of the world.

Capitalizing on six years of research at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Red Sea Farms, has developed saltwater-tolerant crops and saltwater-based greenhouses. The company has also launched the initial development phase of a permanent R&D center in Thuwal, Saudia Arabia. The company has plans in process for an initial commercial scale operation with partners in the region.

Kirchner Group, leveraging its four decades of experience in operational, transactional and asset management activities in the agriculture sector, has been assisting the company with evaluation of potential strategic partnerships, development of growth channels, attraction of talent and preparation for future fundraising activities.  Kirchner met the Red Sea Farms team as their mentor during the 2019 Entrepreneurial World Cup where the company finished third out of over 100,000 companies.

“The technologies being developed and deployed by Red Sea Farms today have the potential to positively impact numerous food insecure regions of the world in the coming years – financially, environmentally and nutritionally”, added Kirchner Group’s Steve Dauphin “Red Sea’s mission is also consistent with our firm’s commitment to global food security. We are excited to be working with them as they continue their growth and begin to expand internationally.”

“As we accelerate the commercialization of our research we are pleased to tap into the Kirchner team’s 100+ years of agricultural business development experience”, commented Mark Tester, Co-Founder of Red Sea Farms. “We look forward to leveraging the entire Kirchner team as we advance into an exciting phase of growth and impact.”

KAUST Vice-President for Innovation and Economic Development, Dr. Kevin Cullen stated, “KAUST is very pleased to see this partnership. Kirchner Group, with their outstanding business development experience, complements very well the scientific skills of the Red Sea Farms Co-Founders, helping this very promising start-up accelerate rapidly to become a significant international company.”