Trends of the world’s nine major plants factory in 2022
Plant factories have developed rapidly in recent years with the expectation of human beings for new ways of planting in the future. More and more vegetable varieties cultivated in plant factories are coming to consumers. However, the key problems of high cost, poor crop quality and low intelligence in plant factories have not been effectively solved.
In terms of cost, it is difficult to ignore the early construction cost of the plant factory. Taking the commercial plant factory with an area of 5000 to 10000 square meters as an example, the cost per square meter is about 8000 to 10000 yuan, including internal decoration, equipment and facilities. The power consumption of equipment has also attracted much attention. Taking LED lamps as an example, although the light efficiency has been continuously improved, it still consumes high power resources as an all artificial grow light for a long time, and is the main expenditure item of the power charge of plant factories.
In terms of planting plants, there is still a gap between the taste and nutritional value of vegetables in plant factories and ordinary products. Taking lettuce as an example, the water content of plant factory products is too high and the nutritional value is low. In addition, there are few high-value cash crops that can be planted, only cannabis and some Chinese herbal plants, such as Clematis and ginseng.
In terms of equipment intelligence, the current plant factory is not intelligent enough to achieve complete unmanned control, and still needs a considerable number of personnel to participate in the operation. According to the investigation of Japanese plant factories by relevant institutions, the labor cost accounts for about 30% of the total operating cost of the plant factory, which is the largest operating cost expenditure item of the plant factory.
Therefore, it will take some time for plant factories to become the norm of agricultural production. But it is undeniable that the plant factory is accelerating towards us. According to the report of global LED lighting market report 2021 – lighting level packaging and lighting product trends (2h21) by trend force Jibang consulting, due to the global food supply and land resource shortage, and benefiting from the intelligent development of agriculture, plant factories and vertical farms are on the rise worldwide to shorten the food supply chain and alleviate the food shortage.
The LED plant grow lighting market is growing year by year thanks to the increased demand for cannabis cultivation and new plant factories. In 2020, the global LED plant lighting market will grow by 49% annually, reaching US $1.3 billion. It is estimated that it will be US $4.7 billion in 2025, and the compound growth rate from 2020 to 2025 will be 30%.
AeroFarms
Aerofarms was established in New Jersey in 2004. It mainly uses air culture and LED lights to replace sunlight to grow more than 550 kinds of vegetables, such as green leafy vegetables and tomatoes. At present, Aerofarms has built plant factories in Singapore, the United Arab Emirates and other places, and is constantly expanding its global business scope. Aerofarms will also plan to enter the Chinese market in the future.
AppHarvest
Appharvest was established in the United States in 2017. The farm uses LED lights as fill lights, and the main crop is tomatoes. In 2021, while moving towards the goal of establishing 12 high-tech farms by 2025, Appharvest also continued to expand the crop types of its farms. Appharvest plant factory now contains more varieties of green leafy vegetables and fruits.
On July 26, appharvest cooperated with Amazon veteran mark Keller to implement a farm operating system based on artificial intelligence. Appharvest said that it is investing in robotics, artificial intelligence, remote operation and proprietary seed genetics to achieve the prediction of crop yield and quality. At the same time, it manages and trains the intelligent harvesting robot Virgo to harvest a variety of crops.
Bowery Farming
Bowery farming was established in New York in 2015. It mainly grows green leafy vegetables. At present, it has three vertical farms.
On May 25, Bowery farming raised US $300million, which will be used for more farm opening and technical improvement, including software, sensors and robotics to realize operation automation. In addition, the funds are also used to expand the product portfolio. Bowery farming mentioned that hardware and robotics are the key to the large-scale operation and profitability of Bowery farming.
Brightfarms
Brightarms was established in New York in 2011. It mainly uses hydroponics to grow salad vegetables. By 2020, brightarms has five greenhouse farms in the United States.
On June 24, brightarms invested millions of dollars in Ohio to open a new R & D center, brightlabs. The new R & D center has increased brightarms’ research capacity tenfold, while improving profitability and providing new product innovation.
Kalera
Kalera was established in Florida in 2010. Kalera mainly grows green leafy vegetables through hydroponics, and has developed an advanced automation and data collection system with Internet of things, cloud, big data analysis and artificial intelligence to manage crop planting.
On February 25, kalera acquired vindara, a company that develops seeds for indoor vertical agricultural environments and other controlled environmental agricultural methods. Kalera said that the acquisition could improve the current and future crop yield and growth cycle speed of the company, and increase the potential for developing new varieties.
On August 11, kalera purchased the German young leaf planting vertical farm &ever GmbH at a price of 130million euros. Through this acquisition, kalera will expand its international business and product line, and enhance its productivity through automated agricultural system.
Infarm
Infarm was established in Berlin, Germany in 2013. It mainly grows salad vegetables, herbs and mushrooms. At present, it grows 65 kinds of agricultural products.
On February 23, infarm launched the latest high-capacity, automated and modular planting and distribution center, which can produce crops equivalent to 10000 square meters of farmland, and the grain production efficiency is 400 times higher than that of traditional soil agriculture. The planting center can set, monitor and analyze CO2, temperature, light, pH value, growth cycle and other environmental parameters online for all farms through the cloud controlled automatic mechanical farming system.
On December 17, infarm announced that it had obtained a round D financing of USD 200million, which will be used to build more vertical farms, expand to the markets of the United States, Canada, Japan and other European regions, and plant more crop varieties. In addition, the company hopes to enter the Asia Pacific and Middle East markets in the next stage.
Lettus Grow
Lettus grow was established in the UK in 2015. As a hydroponic planter and system supplier, it mainly supplies container plant plants. In the plant, air culture technology is used to cooperate with LED grow lights and lettus Grow’s own control software ostara for plant planting. The container can be planted with 30 different crops, such as green leafy vegetables, miniature vegetables and young leaf salads.
On April 29, lettus grow announced that it had established a partnership with Harper Adams, a British agricultural and food University, to explore the impact of air culture and water culture on plant growth in greenhouse environment and vertical farms.
PlantLab
Plantlab was established in the Netherlands in 2010. It is a commercial R & D Vertical agricultural company. At present, it has a 4000 square meter plant factory in Germany, mainly planting tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, lettuce and other plants.
On August 25, plantlab plans to expand the plant factory area to four times the existing area, which will add 15000 square meters of planting land to plantlab for growing vegetables and herbs. In addition, plantlab plans to gradually expand the planting area of plant factories in the Bahamas, Curacao and the United States.
China San’an plant factory
China San’an was established in Anxi County, Fujian Province in 2015. It was jointly established by Fujian San’an group and the Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences. It is an emerging photobiological industry project integrating scientific research, production, demonstration, incubation and other functions. It is mainly engaged in the cultivation of high-quality vegetables and medicinal plants, the extraction of pharmaceutical intermediates, and the export of plant plant equipment and technology.
At present, China San’an plant covers a total area of nearly 40000 square meters, mainly planting vegetables, edible flowers, clematis, fruit trees, tea and other crop varieties, while vegetables, edible flowers, Clematis and other products have been sold to the market and began to make profits. In terms of LED plant grow lights system, China San’an has more than 300 types of plant lighting lamps, which are mainly used in cannabis cultivation, indoor and greenhouse lighting.
In terms of overall solutions, the one-stop plant factory of China San’an has been applied in many projects across the country.
Reprint from LEDinside