Developing Digital, Regenerative and Novel Technologies for Farming on Land and at Sea

Wannes Voorend is a scientist and engineer who cares deeply about the environment and the future of food. He earned his PhD in Sciences from Ghent University in 2014 and continued his research in plant biotechnology at VIB for two more years.

He then joined the R&D department of Colruyt Group, the leading Belgian retailer, where he worked on vertical farming and aquaculture projects. Voorend was the project manager for building a pilot vertical farm for kitchen herbs in 2020 and an offshore seafarm for mussels in 2022. Currently, he is the team manager Smart Farming at Colruyt Group, overseeing the development and innovation of digital, regenerative, and novel technologies for farming on land and at sea.