Scheduled for Completion in December This Year
A K-Smart Farm, which brings together Korea's advanced technologies, will be established in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, in December 2025.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs announced on April 22 that it held a groundbreaking ceremony for a pilot greenhouse to establish a Middle East export base for K-Smart Farm in Riyadh on April 21, with high-level officials from both countries in attendance.
On the 21st, Park Beomsu, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (seventh from the left), attended the groundbreaking ceremony for a pilot greenhouse to establish a Middle East export base for K-Smart Farm held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and is taking a commemorative photo. (Photo by Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs)
This is the fourth pilot greenhouse promoted by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and the Korea Agency of Education, Promotion and Information Service in Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, aimed at directly introducing outstanding Korean smart farm technologies in promising export markets. Representing the Middle East region, this pilot greenhouse will be established in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Unlike previous pilot greenhouses, which were single vinyl greenhouses, this approximately 2,000-square-meter facility will be a complex combining a vertical farm and a glass greenhouse. Various K-Smart Farm technologies, including advanced agricultural robots and environmental control solutions, will be showcased together. To this end, the Ministry selected a consortium of four smart farm companies, including Nongshim and KS Farm, each with outstanding capabilities in their respective fields, last year.
The pilot greenhouse is scheduled for completion in December 2025 and will be built within the National Agricultural Research Center, which the Saudi government plans to develop as the central hub for smart agriculture. The Ministry expects that the pilot greenhouse, once completed, will serve as a catalyst for the spread of smart agriculture to strengthen food security in Saudi Arabia, and also become an export base for expanding K-Smart Farm technologies to neighboring regions.
At the event, Park Beomsu, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, and Al Mushaiti, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture of Saudi Arabia, attended to commemorate the groundbreaking. Both countries reaffirmed their shared goal of expanding smart agriculture to strengthen food security and pledged to continue mutually beneficial cooperation in the smart agriculture sector, taking the establishment of the pilot greenhouse as an opportunity.
In addition, Vice Minister Park visited a local greenhouse in Saudi Arabia where the farm workforce management solution of Iocrops is being piloted, directly promoting Korean smart farm technologies and encouraging export companies.
Vice Minister Park stated, "The Middle East, including Saudi Arabia, is a key strategic market, accounting for about 60% of K-Smart Farm’s overseas contracts over the past two years," and added, "With the groundbreaking of this pilot greenhouse, we will strengthen cooperation with the Saudi government to accelerate the expansion of K-Smart Farm into the Middle East."
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