Udeumji Farm has continued its upward trend for three consecutive days. The news that it has established a subsidiary, the smart farm specialized construction company 'Udeumji E&C,' and is embarking on full-scale exports targeting the global smart farm market worth 450 trillion won, including Saudi Arabia, appears to be influencing its stock price.
As of 9:28 AM on the 22nd, Udeumji Farm was trading at 2,940 won, up 205 won (7.50%) compared to the previous trading day.
Udeumji E&C, having inherited Udeumji Farm’s semi-enclosed glass and greenhouse design and construction technology, plans to transfer advanced domestic agtech technology to Saudi Arabia, which is gaining attention with NEOM City, and expand its global smart farm domain. It will also take the lead in creating 20 smart farms, each about 10,000 pyeong in size, domestically by 2025, including establishing a large-scale smart farm complex in Seosan, Chungnam, with support from the government and local governments.
The inaugural CEO of Udeumji E&C is Yoon Junhyun, a current CEO of Korea Sorting Technology and an expert in AI, agricultural equipment, and smart farm construction. Udeumji Farm currently operates a stable smart farm of 33,000 pyeong based on its semi-enclosed glass greenhouse construction technology and patents. A new semi-enclosed glass greenhouse optimized for European-style vegetables such as romaine and endive is also under construction.
Udeumji Farm’s smart farm facilities are equipped with laying light glass and control heating and cooling through an air-source heat pump, reducing costs and featuring an eco-friendly control system as well as carbon emission rights.
The global smart farm market size has continuously grown from $12.4 billion in 2020 to $17.4 billion last year, maintaining a double-digit growth rate annually. Smart agriculture reduces the use of chemicals and carbon dioxide emissions and decreases soil and groundwater pollution, prompting countries to continuously expand investments in smart agriculture.
An Udeumji Farm official stated, "With the establishment of 'Udeumji E&C,' a comprehensive agricultural equipment company specializing in smart farm construction and AI-based systems, vertical integration in the food industry has progressed," adding, "We plan to rapidly expand smart farms constructed by Udeumji E&C and play a leading role in advanced agricultural sectors both domestically and internationally."
Udeumji Farm introduced that its growth secret lies in its uniquely high production yield through advanced semi-enclosed greenhouses equipped with complex environmental control systems and AI big data analysis systems. It is also known to be more profitable as it can sell carbon emission rights by saving heating and cooling resources.
Smart farms are expected to play an important role in solving food issues in the Middle East, which features dry and high-temperature climates. Earlier, the UAE government held the ‘UAE Agricultural Technology and Food Security’ workshop on the 17th. The workshop was attended by Aisa Al Samahi, Deputy Chief of Mission at the UAE Embassy in Korea, and Wasim Said, Advisor to the UAE Minister of Climate Change and Environment, who introduced the country’s food technology and policies for attracting foreign companies.
The reason the UAE is actively developing agricultural technology is due to its unstable food security situation, where 85% of food must be imported. Since food production is a sector that emits large amounts of greenhouse gases, fostering related technologies is essential for carbon neutrality. Advisor Said explained, "Our food system is collapsing," and added, "We aim to diversify international food sources to disperse the concentration of food supply chains, and Korean companies can participate in the market either independently or through joint ventures in this process."
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