So, you have heard of the Strawberry Generation in Singapore who crumble and die easily but have you eaten Made-In-Singapore strawberries?

A local start-up has managed to commercially-produce strawberries in Singapore with vertical farming and is selling them at S$12 for every 200g pack.

These locally-produced strawberries are now available at Cold Storage outlets at one-north, Jelita and Great Wall City. They will be launched for sale online on Red Mart soon too.

How the strawberries are grown

The strawberries are grown in controlled conditions indoors, which has been touted to be 100 percent clean, free of pesticides, contamination and pollution.

Here's how it works:

With technology and modern hydroponics methods, the strawberries took less than six weeks to grow before being harvested, as compared to traditional methods which take seven to eight weeks.

The key challenge lies in pollination, which is facilitated by the bees in nature, but mimicked in the urban farm manually by hand with a forensic brush which does not guarantee success.

The start-up is exploring the possibility of bringing bees indoors next.

With this success, the urban farm is also looking at growing grapes and eventually making wines made from the harvest.

Made-in-Singapore strawberries not first time

While this might be the first home-grown strawberries at commercial-scale, some innovative green fingers in Singapore have attempted growing strawberries and other non-native fruits and vegetables at home.

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Mixed reactions from netizens

This breakthrough in the local farming industry has received mixed reactions. There is excitement but the high price point is a major turn-off.