Maxellco hosted a webinar session on Vertical Farms in the CEE region. We argued that the region has unique potential to exploit the opportunity created by technology and revolutionize food supply and quality.
Joined by industry leading companies @IDTechEX, @Aerofarms, @JFCo, @Urban Harvest, @WallFarm – we discussed multiple approaches to the questions and discovered business models to suit the local particularities.
Marcell Kovacs – Founder & CEO @Maxellco
It seems like everybody has an opinion about Vertical Farming. Just take a look at the recent article in Financial Times: Is Vertical Farming a Hope or Hype?
We at Maxellco are firm believers that technology makes the world spin faster and set to shake up industries and unfold a new reality infront of our eyes.
Technology is never the solution but a tool to solve a challenge, such as security of food supply, healthy products at scale and more efficient and resourceful farming.
In Central and Eastern Europe, including Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania and 13 other countries we have cca 170 million people to feed at a fairly high urbanization rate with a growing economic purchase power.
The main cost drivers for a successful Vertical Farming business such as Labor, Energy (for heating), Electricity (for lighting) are significantly lower than Western or more developed countries – wheras retail prices are almost at par.
This economic analysis triggered are curiousity to launch a quest for finding a winning Vertical Farming model for the region. Today at our event we invited global market leaders to shed light on their approach and vision for the industry’s future.
Dr. Michael Dent – Senior Technology Analyst @IDTechEX
IDTechEX forecasts a solid growth for the industry reaching $1.5 billion by 2030. The industry is raising a lot of money in the past few years, counting more than houndreds of start-ups throughout the value chain.
But it is a challenging environment to operate in. We witnessed major bankrupcies, due to low profitability, escalting electricity costs and difficulties in scaling.
US, China, Japan, EU and the Middle-East are the strongest markets for Vertical Farming solutions with each region having its local particularities. In Europe the Netherlands counts as the most efficent producer of agricultural products, and having a strong greenhouse technology solutions to feed the world and making it the second biggest food exporter country after the US.
This insanely efficient Dutch agro-technology makes the Vertical Farming model even more under pressure in the EU.
Mattew Mandel – Farm Development Associate @Aerofarms
Aerofarms is the leader in Vertical Farm development with a global presence accross continents. The company lives by the mission to grow the best plants possible for the betterment of humanity.
This is not only a fancy marketing statement but they are also a B-corporation, meaning that they treat external stakeholders as shareholders, a very strong commitment to engage with the community they are present at.
With a constant development in the company’s HQ in New Jersey, They are continously finding new ways to grow beyond microgreens in a vertical setting. As part of their strategy they always partner up with the best local player to enable a sustainable farming solution in the local context.
This makes Aerofarms truly a global and a local player.
James Lloyd-Jones – Founder & CEO @JFCo
JFCo is currently Europe’s largest Vertical Farm soon reaching 5,000 sqm operating 24/7 every day since November 2018. The company’s aim to be the first carbon neutral farm by May 2021. Its answers for the industry’s key challenges are almost complete automation, scale and using renewables to keep costs down.
The core technology at JFCo lies at rain water harvesting and 100% recycling of water made possible through capturing micro and macro humidity in a closed loop system. Almost 98% of our electricity needs coming from solar panels and other renewable sources.
Alexandre van Deun- Founder & CEO @Urban Harvest
Urban Harvest operates in Brussels, Belgium and growth 50,000 plants every months supplying supermarkets and bio-stores around the city. Growing just under 1,000 sqm the company successfully maintains profitability from day 1.
Using natural cooling – as the farm tends to overheat due to the lines of LED – and natural resources it values human operational excellence to deliver results.
The modular configuration allows to lover the upfront investment costs (CAPEX) and maintain a comfortable business with decent salaries to the team.
The key is truly the know-how and processes which the team mastered over the years.
Ares Ferregni- Founder & CEO @WallFarm
WallFarm is set to solve a major headache for Vertical Farming: Automation. In order to drive the operational costs down farms need to get as effective as possible to control the processes.
WallFarm focuses on automating the water control in farms with sampling, analysis and adjustment robots to maintain the circulating water at farms at high quality standards. The patented and modular technology saves significant amounts for farmers andlet technology to have more control over the production cycle. The company has just launched its joint venture to grow medical herbs in Canada.
+++Watch the event again online+++