Offshore Vegetable Greenhouses: A New Application for Controlled Agriculture on Cruise Ships

In a context where the cruise industry is raising its standards in sustainability, operational efficiency, and onboard experience, a new opportunity is emerging to integrate agricultural technology into a largely unexplored environment: the production of fresh vegetables directly on board.

This initiative is led by IMBERT Labs, a technology-based company from Ovalle, and proposes bringing the logic of controlled environment agriculture into the maritime industry through the implementation of modular, intelligent greenhouses on cruise ships.

From Land to Ocean: A New Technological Application

Led by Matías Pastén, together with Maximiliano Morales—an agronomist and business developer with experience in luxury and expedition cruises—the project aims to install systems capable of growing herbs, leafy greens, and other fresh products directly onboard, under controlled and highly efficient conditions.

More than a conceptual idea, this proposal seeks to transfer an already developed technological foundation in controlled agriculture into a new, demanding environment with strong potential for differentiation. The goal is to adapt this solution to real cruise ship operations, enabling part of the fresh food supply to be produced exactly where it will be consumed.

A Concrete Opportunity for the Cruise Industry

Today, major cruise companies are advancing in areas such as plastic reduction, energy efficiency, and waste management. However, onboard fresh food production remains a space with significant room for innovation.

In this context, IMBERT Labs is seeking cruise companies interested in implementing commercial pilots to test this technology under real maritime operating conditions, and to evaluate its impact on onboard fresh supply, logistical efficiency, and the differentiation of the gastronomic experience.

The proposal addresses a specific industry challenge: how to improve freshness, traceability, and availability of certain foods without relying exclusively on port-based supply chains.

Greater Freshness, Traceability, and Experience

Producing fresh vegetables onboard is not only operationally valuable—it can also become a visible and meaningful part of the passenger experience.

Seeing a greenhouse in operation onboard, or even integrating it into the culinary narrative of the journey, connects innovation, wellness, and sustainability in a tangible way. For cruise companies, this opens up a powerful opportunity for differentiation in a highly competitive market, where the overall passenger experience is increasingly important.

Technology Applied to New Environments

With this initiative, IMBERT Labs aims to open a new application frontier for controlled agriculture, bringing solutions originally developed for water efficiency and smart operations into a maritime setting—where technology, logistics, and onboard experience can converge into a high-value proposition.

More than simply installing a greenhouse on a ship, the goal is to demonstrate that controlled production can become a real driver of innovation within the cruise industry.

📧 Contact max@amixtechlab.com 📲 WhatsApp: +56 9 3251 7848