CARROLL CO., Va. – A massive greenhouse in Carroll County is now stocking store shelves across the East Coast with tomatoes grown entirely in the United States — and the company behind it says high tech is what makes it possible.
Pluck’d, a $100 million greenhouse operation in Austinville, recently began distributing its tomatoes to Walmart, Harris Teeter, Food Lion, and Wise Markets, with additional wholesalers, food distributors, and restaurants also in the pipeline.
The facility is seven times larger than Virginia Tech’s Lane Stadium and can reach 80% of the East Coast population within six hours from its Austinville location.
Flavor over yield
From the start, Pluck’d built its operation around taste — not volume.
“We are flavor first focused,” said Andrew Shields, Pluck’d’s director of marketing. “We did not choose the varieties that had the best yield or anything, just to maximize profit. It’s just all about chasing flavor.”
To find the best location for that mission, the company says it relied on data rather than incentives.
“Unlike a lot of other people who kind of chase the cheap energy and tax benefits, we took another approach and followed the science,” Shields said. “We developed a proprietary software that analyzed a billion points of data from every single weather station east of the Mississippi. What we found was this area in Austinville was just the best area in terms of climate for pollination.”
Dutch technology, Virginia soil
Pluck’d uses technology and growing techniques developed in the Netherlands to boost production quality and efficiency.
Central to that effort is an AI monitoring system that allows staff to catch and address problems as they occur rather than after crops are already affected.
“We know about a problem as soon as it happens and we can address it,” Shields said. “Rather than more traditional — it’s more of a reaction rather than a proactive approach to deal with it.”
The company also uses parasitic wasps as a natural form of pest control, reducing its reliance on chemical sprays.
“We’re using parasitic wasps to kind of use more natural approaches to dealing with pests instead of just trying to spray them all the time,” Shields said.
Bringing tomato growing back to the U.S.
Over several decades, domestic tomato production shifted to lower-cost regions, primarily Mexico and Canada. Pluck’d wants to reverse that trend.
“It’s just kind of crazy that something that was just so part of American culture isn’t being grown here,” Shields said. “That’s why we’re putting ‘Always USA Grown’ on our package — it’s gonna be always grown here and you can always count on that.”
What’s ahead for Pluck’d
The company is already building a second, identical greenhouse on the same Austinville site and may expand to other locations. Shields said seasonal workers are currently training local residents at the facility, and he hopes it will one day be entirely staffed by community members.