[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunseok Yoo] GreenPlus, a leading company in the domestic smart farm industry, announced on the 17th that it will carry out a new business of the country’s first model, the ‘Advanced Vertical Farm,’ in Dangjin, Chungcheongnam-do.
GreenPlus’s new business, the ‘Advanced Vertical Farm,’ operates with an ‘unmanned, moving bed system.’ Managers are only involved in the production line during sowing and harvesting periods. After growing for three weeks under the lower three tiers of LED in the moving bed, the crops are automatically transferred to the upper four tiers, where they grow for one week under natural light beds. This allows cultivation with quality equivalent to conventional farming methods in terms of crop ripeness and texture. By sowing seed bulbs (jjokchokpa) in the patented ‘soilless aeroponics’ pots, uniform growth can be maintained. The ‘Advanced Vertical Farm’ began construction at the end of 2021 and started full operation in July 2022, with plans to contribute to sales from the second half of next year. The newly completed ‘Advanced Vertical Farm’ will have an annual crop production scale of 15 billion KRW, utilizing approximately 8,500 pyeong.
‘Soilless aeroponics’ is a ‘mist method’ technology that sprays water onto plant roots with a sprayer instead of using hydroponics. This method uses 95% less water than conventional farming and 40% less than hydroponics. Additionally, the ‘soilless method’ supplies sufficient oxygen to the roots, resulting in productivity 390 times higher than traditional agriculture. The ‘Advanced Vertical Farm’ creates four layers of cultivation racks and controls growth conditions such as light, temperature, and humidity through an artificial system, enabling 12 to 13 production cycles annually for mass cultivation. When harvesting crops, they are packaged per pot with roots intact, maintaining freshness for over a week.
GreenPlus operates nine vertical farms worldwide and is known for its innovative production methods. It is the first in Korea to successfully demonstrate this on a large scale, following the American agricultural startup ‘AeroFarms.’ This represents a win-win model that contributes to solving agricultural inflation issues and creating local jobs. By utilizing vast crop growth data during production, GreenPlus plans to expand its advanced smart farm software business, accelerating the smartization of agriculture as a ‘Korean-style vertical farm.’ Starting with jjokchokpa production, the company plans to diversify its profit structure by expanding its supply chain to various crops such as leafy vegetables and root vegetables.
Park Younghwan, CEO of GreenPlus, stated, “In connection with the ‘Advanced Vertical Farm,’ we will operate a pilot smart village farm where future farmers wishing to return to farming can experience a subtropical crop research lab, country houses, and greenhouses.” He added, “We are preparing a sales project guaranteed with cultivation, distribution, and profit, as well as a virtual crop cultivation program platform called MetaFarm, which can be operated anywhere via smartphone.”
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