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Show Utah's entrepreneurs Iron County town best for growing tomatoes toes are twice as good for a dollar less per pound than Holland tomatoes. toma-toes. Now that the company has found the perfect location for growing tomatoes and perfected its hydro-ponic hydro-ponic growing system, the challenge chal-lenge is meeting the demand for the product. Washington, Colorado and Utah are market areas on Troy Hygro's waiting list. "The market for tomatoes is unbelievable," un-believable," enthuses Markell. "Based on per capita consumption, consump-tion, the average person eats 15 pounds of fresh tomatoes every year. Our goal is to supply two ounces per person of that total, or less than one percent of the market." But supplying tomatoes for even less than one percent of the market would mean expanding Troy Hygro's Hyg-ro's operation from nine green houses to 1,200. "We have the land necessary, and the natural resources," Markell Mar-kell reports, "but we need large amounts of money to continue expanding. ex-panding. We've invested everything every-thing we have in the company." Enter the State of Utah's Division Divi-sion of Business and Economic Development. De-velopment. "The state has lent us strong moral support and that support sup-port gives us credibility with banks and investors," notes Markell. "In : addition, the state has supplied us : with good leads as to the availabil-; ity of capital." The owners are optimistic expansion ex-pansion financing will be found. "We're already planning for the construction of an additional 1,191 greenhouses which will employ some 780 workers and generate a $9.4 million payroll during the next 10 years," says Markell. Until then, Washington, California Califor-nia and even Utah will have to wait for tomatoes grown at a little slower slow-er pace in Newcastle, the best place in the world to grow tomatoes. Editor's Note: On May 20-22 mnc of the nation'! most successful entrepreneurs entrep-reneurs will gather In Salt Lake City for the annual convention of .Inc. Magazine's Maga-zine's 500 fastest-growing companies. The following b one of a series of articles featuring firms which have helped establish estab-lish Utah as a national leader In the Incubation In-cubation of significant and successful high tech firms.) NEWCASTLE, IRON COUNTY COUN-TY Newcastle, Utah, is the best place in the world to grow tomatoes! toma-toes! Town slogan? Local folklore? No, it's the result of over a year of studying and searching for the best place to grow tomatoes by a company which specializes in the field - Troy Hygro Systems. Newcastle, 30 miles west of Cedar City in Southwestern Utah, is the site of Troy Hygro's nine tomato-only greenhouses. Manager Mana-ger and partner in the operation, Jim Markell, says the area has abundant amounts of light at ideal levels, but also has an important additional ingredient: geothermal water, or naturally warm water, to feed and nurture tomato plants year-round. Couple those factors with Troy Hygro's unique method of growing tomatoes in a tube and you have . exceptionally fine tasting toma- toes, says Manceu. He explains that with the company's com-pany's hydroponic system, invented in-vented and patented by Troy Hygro Hyg-ro partner Don Kehl, "The growing grow-ing roots of the plant are put in a plastic tube rather than soil. That way, at each stage of the plant's growth, it can be fed the optimum nutrient requirements and the feeding feed-ing is not diluted as it would be in soil. The nutrient formula is constantly con-stantly monitored for Ph levels and temperatures, and adjusted accordingly. "Of course soil also serves to support the plant as it grows," acknowledged ack-nowledged Markell, "but we simply simp-ly tie up the plants and support them with string and sticks." The hydroponic system also provides pro-vides duplicatable results year after af-ter year. "We have consistent production, pro-duction, averaging about 30 pounds of tomatoes per year from each plant," says Markell. And where do all those tomatoes go every year? Alaska is the company's number one market area, Markell says. "We used to sell the tomatoes in Salt Lake City, but a greater demand de-mand at a much higher price come from Alaska which had been importing im-porting its tomatoes from Holland." Hol-land." Markell says Troy Hygro toma- |
