Nongshim Holds Groundbreaking Ceremony for K-Smart Farm in Saudi Arabia
Building and Operating K-Smart Farm as a Representative Korean Company
On April 21 (local time), Nongshim announced on the 23rd that it held a groundbreaking ceremony for a pilot greenhouse to establish a K-Smart Farm export base in the Middle East at the National Agricultural Research Center in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
This groundbreaking ceremony is part of the "Smart Farm Export Promotion Project," which Nongshim signed with the Korea Agricultural Technology Promotion Agency in July last year. The "Smart Farm Export Promotion Project" is hosted by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and organized by the Korea Agricultural Technology Promotion Agency. Its goal is to establish and operate a Korean-style smart farm model locally in Saudi Arabia, thereby promoting the entry of Korea's smart farm industry into the Middle Eastern market. Nongshim, in consortium with three small and medium-sized enterprises, was selected to represent Korean companies in this project.
Nongshim held a groundbreaking ceremony for a pilot greenhouse to establish a K-Smart Farm export base in the Middle East at the National Agricultural Research Center in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on the 21st (local time). Nongshim plans to create a 2,000㎡ smart farm with two models, "vertical farm" and "glass greenhouse," by December. From the fourth person on the left in the photo are Saudi Deputy Minister Al Abdullatif of the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture, Deputy Minister Al Mushaiti, Park Beomsu, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, Moon Byungjun, Charg? d'Affaires of the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in Saudi Arabia, Ahn Hogun, President of the Korea Agricultural Technology Promotion Agency, and Hwang Cheongyong, Vice President of Nongshim. Photo by Nongshim
The Nongshim smart farm will cover approximately 2,000 square meters and is scheduled for completion by December. It will showcase a variety of K-Smart Farm technologies, including advanced agricultural robots and environmental control solutions.
Nongshim will build the smart farm using two models: a "vertical farm" and a "glass greenhouse." The vertical farm will cultivate leafy vegetables such as frilled ice lettuce and kale, while the glass greenhouse will produce crops such as cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, and bell peppers. The company plans to focus on producing leafy vegetables with less bitterness and fruit vegetables with a sweet flavor, catering to the local Middle Eastern preference for sweeter tastes.
The crops produced by Nongshim will initially be sold through the existing distribution network of its local Saudi partner. In the future, Nongshim also plans to supply its products to local retail stores such as Carrefour and Lulu Hypermarket, as well as e-commerce platforms like Amazon and Noon.
Through this project, Nongshim aims to widely promote the excellence of "K-Smart Farm" in the Middle East and expand related industries. The company plans to secure competitiveness by stably operating a locally customized smart farm package and, furthermore, to establish a cluster that brings together related industries such as crop research, processing, and distribution and sales, using it as a bridgehead for global expansion.
Meanwhile, Nongshim took its first step into overseas markets in 2022 by exporting a container-type smart farm to Oman. Since then, Nongshim has signed smart farm export agreements with Saudi Arabia and Qatar in 2023, and last year was selected for the government's Smart Farm Export Promotion Project.
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