Woori Green Science announced on April 29 that it has been selected for the 2025 Smart Farm Multi-Ministry Package Innovation Technology Development Project, titled "Commercialization of Greenhouse Production Systems for High Value-Added Crops Using Digital Twin Technology," jointly promoted by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, the Ministry of Science and ICT, and the Rural Development Administration.
The company plans to commercialize the use of digital twin technology to improve the productivity and quality of Scutellaria baicalensis, which is currently being developed as a functional ingredient for hair health.
A total of 2.117 billion KRW will be invested over three years until 2027, including 1.9 billion KRW in government funding. The Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) will lead the project, with Woori Green Science, Jeonbuk National University, Korea Electronics Technology Institute (KETI), and NaviWebBiz participating. The industry-academia-research consortium will jointly develop an advanced medicinal crop production platform based on digital twin technology.
This research aims to establish a smart greenhouse platform that integrates real-time linkage between actual greenhouse environments and virtual simulations, enabling integrated crop growth prediction, quality analysis, and environmental control. Through this, the company plans to advance cultivation technology by precisely managing the content of functional components in medicinal crops within 10% accuracy.
In particular, Woori Green Science is focusing on the commercialization of functional ingredients using Scutellaria baicalensis, as interest in hair health has recently increased and the market for related functional raw materials is rapidly growing.
Since transferring the relevant technology from the Korea Food Research Institute in July 2024, the company has successfully completed animal testing and human application trials, and is currently preparing to apply for approval of the ingredient as an individually recognized functional food material.
Woori Green Science aims to launch functional products with the goal of obtaining individual recognition approval by 2026, and is targeting full-scale market entry and revenue generation.
A company representative stated, "The digital twin system is a technology that enables precise design and management of cultivation environments, and can also be applied to high value-added crops such as medical cannabis," adding, "By combining precise environmental control and growth prediction technologies, we expect to significantly improve quality consistency and production efficiency."
The representative also explained, "This project is linked to the smart farm R&D big data platform, so we expect a variety of outcomes such as real-time sharing of growth and quality data, development of crop-specific standard manuals, commercialization models, technology transfer, and securing patents."
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
