Fish and vegetables from the city on the Danube: blün – the Viennese urban farming start-up – offers the best of both worlds with the topic of the future, aquaponics: fish (blue) and vegetables (green) from sustainable closed loop recycling.
More than half the world’s population now lives in cities, and this trend is rising. Innovative and sustainable food production concepts are needed to ensure that these people are nourished over the long term. The focus here is on the most sparing use of resources.
The Viennese company blün, which operates the first commercial aquaponics plant in Austria in the 22nd district, shows how this environmentally-friendly approach can be “transparent, local and eco-effective”. Their aquaponics plant combines fish and vegetable farming in a closed cycle. In addition to locally bred catfish, blün produces and sells many varieties of tomatoes, eggplants, cucumbers, peppers and chilies.
What is aquaponics?
Aquaponics is a sustainable process that combines breeding fish with farming crops. It combines the water cycle for fish – the aqua – with the “hydro-ponic” supply of vegetable plants. The technique is comparable to hydroponics used for house plants.
At blün, vegetables grow in a greenhouse on an earth-like substrate, which is completely composted after harvesting. Waste water from fish farming is also used a second time as fertilizer for the vegetables.
Fish and vegetable farming thus become one, hence the name: blün like blue for fish and water, green for plants and vegetables.
blün with even more Vienna
blün GmbH was founded in 2016 under the motto: “Food with more life in Vienna” by four innovative farmers and gardeners from Vienna. From its premises in Essling, the company supplies not only households but also renowned retail and gastronomy partners throughout Vienna. blün also sells directly from the company’s own farm and via its web store.
The web store was expanded at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic with a grant from the Vienna Business Agency and the product range was expanded to include products from other innovative Viennese “urban farmers”.
The coronavirus crisis has had another lasting effect as well: during the lockdown this spring, blün optimized its vegetable packing station and the ordered goods can now be delivered CO2-neutrally by mail.
Our tip if you want to learn more about blün: the company is offering personal tours of its production plant.
Company:
blün GmbH
Schafflerhofstraße 156
1220 Wien
https://bluen.at
Services of the Vienna Business Agency:
- Funded at the program Vienna Online 2020
- Funded at the program "Nahrung" 2017
As of December 2020