Daedong and Daehan Steel Join Forces to Expand Large-Scale Smart Farms

Providing End-to-End Greenhouse Smart Farm Solutions
Collaboration to Advance and Expand Smart Farming AI Technologies

Daedong announced on the 19th that it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Daehan Steel to lead the "large-scale smart farming" industry by providing artificial intelligence (AI) solutions across the entire greenhouse agriculture value chain, from greenhouse construction and cultivation to harvesting and distribution. The two companies will collaborate on technology development and explore new business opportunities related to this field.

Kwon Kijae, Executive Vice President of Business Operations at Daedong (left), and Lee Kyungbaek, CEO of Daehan Steel, are taking a photo after signing a memorandum of understanding. Daedong

This agreement was initiated to promote the construction of next-generation smart farms and the advancement of smart farming technologies in response to the climate crisis, leveraging Daedong's AI-based future agriculture technology and Daehan Steel's smart farm operations using waste heat utilization solutions. It also aims to support the government's smart agriculture dissemination initiatives. Since 2020, Daedong has positioned smart farming as a future growth engine, continuously advancing its technology and expanding its business base. Through this partnership, the company plans to achieve tangible business results.

Under this agreement, the two companies will cooperate in three main areas: joint development of core technologies for next-generation large-scale smart farms; joint promotion of smart farming businesses based on energy, AI, and robotics; and joint participation in projects to expand the smart agricultural industry. Daedong will contribute future agriculture technologies such as data- and AI-based growth solutions and consulting, agricultural robots for cultivation and harvesting, and smart farm environmental controls. Daehan Steel will provide its expertise in factory waste heat recovery and utilization technologies, as well as its know-how in operating smart farms based on these technologies.

In addition, the two companies plan to utilize Daedong Group's approximately 2.4-hectare (about 7,200 pyeong) Taean smart farm, smart farms for crop research in Seoul and Jeju, and Daehan Steel's large-scale smart farms. Through these resources, they aim to establish a fully automated greenhouse agriculture system based on AI and robotics to enhance agricultural productivity. They also intend to promote the spread of large-scale smart farms, similar to those in the Netherlands, to improve agricultural productivity and establish a sustainable greenhouse agriculture model.

Kwon Kijae, Executive Vice President of Business Operations at Daedong, stated, "Since both companies possess technology and operational know-how in the smart farm sector, we expect this collaboration to create a new innovative growth model in smart farming. Daedong will continue to expand investment so that AI and agricultural robots become the core competitiveness of greenhouse smart farming in the global market, and will further strengthen cooperation with excellent partners like Daehan Steel."