Costs of producing which crops? Trying to match low quality, low taste produce won’t work. The costs for largely tasteless greens and vegetables are pretty optimized. However the numbers change quite a bit with “organics” or “Whole Foods” quality of produce. Local fresh veggies and greens add a lot of flavor. Vertical farms also open the possibility of growing “lost” varieties which don’t freeze or ship well.

Even with all of that the economics have been right on the edge of easy profitability for the last few years. The biggest advancement hasn’t been a revolutionary technology, but a combination of exponentially decreasing cost of LED’s, the efficiency of LED’s, and investment in the racking and tower equipment. All of these have been decreasing, and steadily moving the line up for profitability. Combine that with continued development of robotic planting and harvesting which is a much larger cost for vertical farms since the equipment hasn’t all been developed yet.