Red Sun Farms, Heritable Agriculture, and Consorzio Italiano Vivaisti (CIV) have announced significant progress in developing the leading indoor-grown strawberry at the Vineland Research Station facility. This partnership combines CIV’s deep expertise in strawberry genetics and germplasm, Heritable Agriculture’s advanced AI-driven breeding models, and Red Sun Farm’s indoor growing excellence to revolutionize how premium strawberries are bred and grown. 

By leveraging AI simulations to predict crop performance, the partnership is streamlining breeding timelines and optimizing key traits for greenhouse efficiency. This approach allows the team to bring high-quality, innovative strawberry varieties to market faster—varieties designed with growers, consumers, and the environment in mind. 

Heritable Agriculture’s predictive AI technology generalizes across species, environments and traits, making it adaptable to nearly any agricultural operation. When paired with Red Sun Farms’ vertically integrated model and CIV’s world-leading breeding capabilities, this collaboration represents a new benchmark in indoor fruit innovation.

A key differentiator of this initiative is the early involvement of eight retail partners representing more than 8000 North American store locations. By bringing retailers into the breeding process from the beginning stages, the project aligns real consumer insights and market needs with cutting-edge technology—ensuring the varieties developed are optimized not just for performance, but for taste, texture, and shopper appeal. 

Last week, retail partners joined the research team at Vineland for an exclusive first look at more than 110 strawberry breeding lines currently in development. Through guided sensory evaluations, partners provided valuable feedback that will help shape the next phase of selection and innovation. 

“At Vineland, we’re proud to be at the forefront of horticultural innovation by combining world-class research, advanced technology and industry collaborations to deliver premium, sustainable strawberries to the consumer," said Ian Potter, president and CEO, Vineland Research. "It's been incredible to see this research come to life and be validated directly through customer feedback." 

“We’re bringing AI solutions to indoor growers, beginning with greenhouse strawberries,” added Davide Soss, CSO at Heritable Agriculture. "This work is setting a new standard for strawberry flavour and quality, which is precisely why retailers were here this week to learn more." 

“For CIV, this collaboration represents an important step in turning our genetic research into tangible value for the entire supply chain,” said Federico Stanzani, general manager of CIV. “Providing our germplasm and integrating it with Heritable’s predictive models, Red Suns’ cultivation expertise.

Source: Red Sun Farms December 2, 2025 news release