"Central And Eastern Europe Can Be The Powerhouse of Global Food Security"

July 6, 2021

"Closed-system farming helps tackle the biggest challenges in global food supply security", says Tungsram president & CEO Joerg Bauer.

Climate change causing extreme weather conditions in certain areas, overpopulation, soil contamination, the depletion of areas suitable for agricultural production, urbanization, and growing demand for quality food all point toward the increasing importance of local indoor farming and urban vertical farms. The world’s population is predicted to reach 9.7 billion by 2050 (2 billion more than today), with most of the growth set to take place in Africa and developing countries where climate change hits the hardest. Moreover, in just 10 years, humanity will need 50% more food than today (calculating with a current annual growth rate of 5%).

"We are convinced that outdoor farming alone will not be able to meet these challenges. The much-needed technological advances of precision agriculture, improved seeds, and irrigation will be needed to counterbalance the adverse impact of climate change alone: innovative solutions designed to ensure food security must complement this huge undertaking. Indoor farming stands out as one of the best-suited solutions," he explains. 

"Indoor farms are highly water-efficient installations that take up considerably less space, and are independent from weather conditions and the change of seasons. Paired with other technology-driven solutions, these farms can be the guarantees of basic human wellbeing for billions of people, where basic wellbeing is defined by 2,200 calories of healthy, balanced food intake and 10 liters of water (for drinking, basic hygiene and cooking) per person a day."

Joerg Bauer with Tungsram

The company supplies LED / Vertical Farming solutions

Innovation and investment
However, for this exciting disruptive technology that balances on the thin line between agriculture, industry 4.0, and digital technology to provide real global solutions and be able to produce staple food for the masses, including integrated ecosystems that can also feed animals in a sustainable way, a lot of innovation and investment is necessary. "Humanity will have to embrace sources of food that go beyond the traditional approach, such as algae, bacteria, or insects, which often have a much higher conversion rate of feed intake to edible food. By cleverly combining different elements such as vertical farms, animal husbandry, insects, and fish, we can get very close to a zero-waste cluster with optimal productivity – allowing strategic autonomy even in countries with adverse climatic conditions."

Although Central and Eastern Europe do not typically bear the brunt of the most severe consequences of climate change and food scarcity, an increasing number of European initiatives focus, for example, on the impact of the 24% decline in water sources on the continent in the last few years.

"However, the CEE region could play a much bigger role than simply making the necessary investments to solve its own looming climate problems. I have always looked at the CEE region as a historically well-established bridge connecting Europe with developing countries in need and working closely with North Africa and the Middle East. It is up to the nations of this region, to us, to understand what happens to geopolitical stability if we fail to help these developing countries to deal with all the negative, sometimes catastrophic consequences of climate change and fast population growth. In addition to being our basic social responsibility and humanitarian obligation to offset these effects, it is also in our very own interest to act. Innovation is needed to propel sustainable food production forward and end hunger in the world," Joerg adds.

"Central and Eastern Europe’s commitment therefore should be to become a global food security powerhouse that develops and starts scaling the solutions, which will allow the citizens of developing countries to live a sustainable and worthwhile life in their home regions."

What should governments and businesses in the region do to achieve this?
"They should acknowledge that the CEE region could potentially play a significant role in these solutions and provide funding for research and innovation to scale food security. By doing so, we would all be working to make the world more livable and we would physically be sowing the seeds of human happiness."

Written by Joerg Bauer President & CEO of Tungsram, originally published in Globsec Disruptive Tech Trends in CEE

For more information:
Tungsram
Keith Thomas, Commercial Leader
keith.thomas2@tungsram.com
agritech.tungsram.com

'Acute' Pallet Shortages Putting Fresh Produce Supply At Risk

A Pallet Shortage Is Affecting

The Produce Industry In Many Ways

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By AMY SOWDER

May 19, 2021

Severe pallet shortages are inflicting a widespread effect on the produce industry — including the availability of produce to consumers.

The shortages are "acute," according to United Fresh Produce Association’s letter to the industry in a news release.

The association detailed a multitude of issues that are impacting pallet availability, including:

• Efforts of wholesalers, distributors and retailers to ensure sufficient inventory of non-perishables given previous pandemic-related impacts;

• Availability of lumber to repair and build new pallets;

• The escalating price of lumber when it is available;

• Nonperishable inventory dwell time increase; and

• Lack of available trucks to relocate pallets.

“The lack of pallets is adding stress to a supply chain that is already facing significant challenges, which include a lack of available trucks and shipping containers, ongoing labor challenges, fluctuating fuel costs, pandemic-related challenges, and a pending shortage of resin used to make reusable containers and pallets,” according to the release. “At this time, expectations are that the pallet shortage will continue for months, perhaps for the balance of 2021 – all at a time when many North American produce items are just beginning seasonal harvests and shipments.”

Listen to United Fresh’s John Hollay discuss this pallet issue with retail and Produce Market Guide editor Ashley Nickle in our Tip of the Iceberg podcast episode.

The issue has a wide and deep scope of negative impacts, according to United Fresh:

• The shortage of lumber and wood products has increased the cost of raw lumber 200% to 350% and is making the cost of wood pallets increase incrementally;

• In one example, in the past few weeks, pallet costs have increased more than 400%, if the pallets are even available, and often they are not;

• One farmer was told by one pallet supplier that they are not taking any new customers due to an inability to fill even existing customer demand;

• Companies are forced to bring pallets from other jurisdictions, thereby incurring border and transportation costs; and

• Pallets are being held in-house due to delayed and canceled orders from pallet services, leading to higher storage charges and increased congestion within operations.

Company leaders along the supply chain need to collaborate to balance organizational goals relative to overall availability of goods with availability of food.

“If there is not a concerted effort across the supply chain to ensure pallet availability for shipment of produce, there is little doubt that it will be very difficult, if not impossible, for the grower-shipper community to meet buyer, and ultimately consumer, demand for produce,” according to United Fresh. 

Also, growers and shippers are trying to comply with pallet requirement specifications, but this is even more challenging.

United Fresh’s stance is that temporary modifications or exceptions to pallet requirements — as long as those exceptions don’t jeopardize safety — would help greatly until this pallet shortage is resolved.

All partners in the supply chain should have regular conversations with their pallet suppliers to understand the situation and pallet inventories and availability, according to the release.

“We welcome the opportunity to work collaboratively with all parties within the supply chain to mitigate the impacts of the current shortages and will reach out to stakeholders to identify a path forward that provides solutions to this increasingly disruptive threat and enables the continued flow of goods,” according to United Fresh.

Learn more details with this interview.

Lead Photo courtesy Michael Gaida/Pixabay

Vertical Farming: Ugandan Company Develops Solution for Urban Agriculture

We speak to Lilian Nakigozi, founder of Women Smiles Uganda, a company that manufactures and sells vertical farms used to grow crops in areas where there is limited space.

Image from: How We Made It in Africa

1. How Did You Come Up with the Idea to Start Women Smiles Uganda?

Women Smiles Uganda is a social enterprise formed out of passion and personal experience. I grew up with a single mother and eight siblings in Katanga, one of the biggest slums in Kampala, Uganda. I experienced hunger and poverty where we lived. There was no land for us to grow crops and we didn’t have money to buy food. Life was hard; we would often go to sleep on empty stomachs and our baby sister starved to death.

Growing up like that, I pledged to use my knowledge and skills to come up with an idea that could solve hunger and, at the same time, improve people’s livelihoods, particularly women and young girls living in the urban slums. In 2017, while studying business at Makerere University, I had the idea of developing a vertical farm. This came amid so many challenges: a lack of finance and moral support. I would use the money provided to me for lunch as a government student to save for the initial capital of my venture.

I managed to accumulate $300 and used this to buy materials to manufacture the first 20 vertical farms. I gave these to 20 families and, in 2018, we fully started operations in different urban slums.

2. Tell Us About Your Vertical Farms and How They Work.

Women Smiles vertical farms are made out of wood and recycled plastic materials. Each unit is capable of growing up to 200 plants. The product also has an internal bearing system which turns 360° to guarantee optimal use of the sunlight and is fitted with an inbuilt drip irrigation system and greenhouse material to address any agro-climatic challenges.

The farms can be positioned on a rooftop, veranda, walkway, office building or a desk. This allows the growth of crops throughout the year, season after season, unaffected by climatic changes like drought.

In addition, we train our customers on how to make compost manure using vermicomposting and also provide them with a market for their fresh produce.

Image from: How We Made It in Africa

3. Explain Your Revenue Model.

Women Smiles Uganda generates revenue by selling affordable, reliable and modern vertical farms at $35, making a profit margin of $10 on each unit. The women groups are recruited into our training schemes and we teach them how to use vertical farming to grow crops and make compost manure by vermicomposting. Women groups become our outgrowers of fruits and vegetables. We buy the fresh produce from our outgrowers and resell to restaurants, schools and hotels.

We also make money through partnering with NGOs and other small private organisations to provide training in urban farming concepts to the beneficiaries of their projects.

4. What Are Some of the Major Challenges of Running This Business?

The major challenge we face is limited funds by the smallholder farmers to purchase the vertical farms. However, we mitigate this by putting some of them into our outgrower scheme which helps them to generate income from the fresh produce we buy. We have also linked some of them to financial institutions to access finance.

5. How Do You Generate Sales?

We reach our customers directly via our marketing team which moves door to door, identifying organised women groups and educating them about the benefits of vertical farming for improved food security. Most of our customers are low-income earners and very few of them have access to the internet.

However, we do also make use of social media platforms like Facebook to reach out to our customers, especially the youth.

In addition, we organise talk shows and community gatherings with the assistance of local leaders with whom we work hand in hand to provide educational and inspirational materials to people, teaching them about smart agriculture techniques.

6. Who Are Your Main Competitors?

Just like any business, we have got competitors; our major competitors include Camp Green and Spark Agro-Initiatives.

Image from: The Conversation

7. What Mistakes Have You Made in Business and What Did You Learn From Them?

As a victim of hunger and poverty, my dream was for every family in slums to have a vertical farm. I ended up giving some vertical farms on credit. Unfortunately, most of them failed to pay and we ended up with huge losses.

This taught me to shift the risk of payment default to a third party. Every customer who may need our farms on credit is now linked to our partner micro-finance bank. By doing this, it is the responsibility of the bank to recover the funds from our customers and it has worked well.

8. Apart from This Industry, Name an Untapped Business Opportunity in Uganda.

Manufacturing of cooler sheds for the storage of perishable agricultural produce is one untapped opportunity. Currently, Ugandan smallholder farmers lose up to 40% of their fresh produce because of a lack of reliable cold storage systems.

Providing a cheap and reliable 24/7 cold storage system would dramatically reduce post-harvest losses for these farmers.

“I’m Opting For Localized Franchised Farming”

“In the States, the food system is so inefficient both in the way it’s produced, at a massive scale and in terms of quality,” says Natalie Radu. "The problem is that consumers are left in the dark. They don’t know what pesticide is used on the food they’re eating. GM foods are not labeled. Let aside the waste this industry has.” Natalie says that many don’t have access to healthy food. When walking around in the Bronx for instance, on the lookout for a grocery store, it’s so much easier to buy a pack of soda for half the price of fresh produce. 

‘Localized franchised farming’
“McDonald's is known for real estate. If only we could do a Wholefoods / McDonalds franchise where customers could walk in and snip off lettuce, directly available to consumers. I’m opting for localized franchised farming. I have been trying to figure out a location in terms of real estate, but, from the perspective of a small business, New Jersey and New York prices are very high. I would have to start out in a place that’s cheaper on average. However, I would definitely apply for grants to fund the initial infrastructure for the farms." 

Natalie Radu in action on her channel

Natalie has her passion for writing and her engineering study to her advantage when starting a farm. “I think because of this intersection I will be able to work with the science and also have the ability to convey that science. I can make the lettuce we’ll be growing feel personal for someone that’s in their own house, miles away or even across the world. That’s the biggest thing, you have to get people excited about vertical farming, at least as excited as you are. However, when it comes down to engineering I’m going to need some help.”

“My family immigrated from Moldova to the US around the collapse of the Soviet Union,” says Natalie. “My grandparents used to grow several fruits in the backyards and my affection for farming started right about there, it’s in my blood.” Natalie, an 18-year-old engineering student has been determined to run her own farm in the future. It all started with finding a proper research topic, which turned into her biggest passion nowadays. 

As Natalie’s based in New Jersey, she is surrounded by several vertical farms. She wanted to pass by some farms near her to visit and stumbled upon Good Feeling Farms. Eventually, Natalie was able to do an internship at Good Feeling Farms to get a better understanding of every aspect of a vertical farm, from seeding to growing to harvesting. Good Feeling Farms is a New Jersey-based wholesale micro greenery that specializes in microgreens and hydro lettuce. The farm is run by a team of three, taking care of the cultivation and harvesting process. 

Inside Good Feeling Farms' growing facility

Ever since her internship, Natalie is determined to run her own farm in the future. She currently runs a YouTube channel, where she experiments with indoor hydroponics. She recently spoke at a local TEDx event about the inefficacies in traditional food production and distribution systems. 

Natalie says: “I’ve tried many growing conditions for plants and I think you can grow them under many different conditions. You have to work with your circumstances. Ideally, your indoor garden would be sustainable. The growth mediums could be sanitized and reused to lessen waste. Besides being water-efficient, vertical farming really shines in the areas of automation and data science. The ability to collect and analyze plant data constantly and instantly modify environmental factors has massive potential for produce cultivation as we know it.” 

For more information:
Natalie Radu
natlydrad@gmail.com    

Author: Rebekka Boekhout
© VerticalFarmDaily.com

Israel’s Vertical Field Inks Deal To Deploy Its Farming System In UAE

By LUKE TRESS

Produce grown using Israeli start up Vertical Field's farming system. (Courtesy/Vertical Field)

Vertical Field, a startup that has developed a vertical farming system, has signed an accord with an Emirati company to deploy its products to the United Arab Emirates.

The Israeli ag-tech firm signed the agreement with Emirates Smart Solutions & Technologies, Vertical Field said in a statement on Wednesday.

Vertical Field will set up pilot vertical farms in the Emirate of Umm Al Quwain ahead of a wider roll-out in the UAE, the company said. The pilot will aim to determine which crops are best for the local market and will be supported and overseen by Vertical Field’s Israeli agronomists.

The firm expects the project to expand into a multimillion-dollar venture that will include distributing Vertical Field’s products to additional Gulf states, the company said.

Roughly 80 percent of agricultural food products in the UAE is imported from abroad, amounting to $10 billion in trade in 2018. The increasing cost of transporting food and concerns over food security played a part in the new partnership, Vertical Field said.

“Arid desert regions face many challenges surrounding the production of high-quality agricultural produce at low prices. With the help of various agricultural technologies and new developments, we believe that we can successfully align the demands of the market with competitive prices without compromising quality,” Guy Elitzur, Vertical Field’s CEO, said in a statement.

Maher Makalde, the CEO of Emirates Smart Solutions & Technologies, said, “We are excited for the opportunity to partner with Vertical Field and bring advanced Israeli vertical technology that enables the growth of produce in a controlled and predictable way, overcoming harsh outdoor climate conditions.

“Our goal is to establish food security that is independent of imports and to develop a high-quality agricultural infrastructure that reaches the retail market,” Makalde said.

An illustration of vegetables growing on walls by Vertical Field. (Courtesy)

Vertical Field’s soil-based installations are made up of separate blocks of plants that can be rearranged at will to produce locally sourced vegetables. This green wall of vegetation is suitable for growing vegetables in stores, offices and apartment buildings, or anywhere in urban areas, which have little space but many walls.

The firm, formerly called Green Wall Israel, said that products grown with its farming method are pesticide-free, generate less waste than conventional agriculture and utilize 90% less water, growing in precise quantities in a controlled environment with shorter growing cycles.

Produce in its containers can grow 365 days a year and is free of the limitations usually imposed by seasons, weather, climate and location.

The farms are modular, expandable and moveable, with fully automated crop management and a sterile environment that requires significantly less human contact. The crops that are currently offered include lettuce, basil, parsley, kale, mint and others, and are competitively priced, the firm said in a statement.

Israel and the oil-rich UAE signed a US-brokered normalization agreement in September, opening the way for business and tourism between the two countries, after years of covert trade exceeding $1 billion annually by some estimates.

The UAE, a federation of seven desert sheikdoms dependent on petrodollars, has been keen to cash in on the influx of Israeli investment and travel, particularly after the pandemic diminished demand for oil and hammered international tourism.

Earlier this month, Vertical Field signed an agreement with Moderntrendo S.R.O, an agricultural distributor in Ukraine, to deploy its plant installations in supermarket chains nationwide.

In December Vertical Field also signed a “multi-million dollar” agreement with Israeli discount supermarket chain Rami Levy for the installation of its vertical farming containers on the stores’ premises.

Vertical Field is based in Ra’anana in central Israel and was founded in 2006.

How VeggiTech Contributes To UAE's Agenda To build Food And Water Security

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VeggiTech farm - Image Credit: Supplied

VeggiTech's Produce Utilizes Less Than 10 Percent

of The Water Used In Traditional Farms

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August 31, 2020

VeggiTech is an agrotech company with the sole aim of disrupting the agriculture industry. VeggiTech focuses on addressing the key challenges of traditional farming – soil, temperature, and water through its design of protected hydroponics and grow lights-assisted hydroponics. We have chosen the challenging conditions of the UAE to demonstrate the positive use of agro-technology to create sustainable farms aligned to the UAE’s vision of food security.

In the last 18 months, VeggiTech has built and is operating over 30 hectares of farms with protected hydroponics. It is in the process of going live with 4,500 sq meters of indoor vertical farms that employ grow light-assisted hydroponics. We produced over 1.6million kilograms of produce last year and this year (including the summer months), we are delighted to produce over 1.9million kilograms with over 500+ tones of organic produce from our farms between August 2020 and July 2021.

VeggiTech's produce utilizes less than 10 percent of the water used in traditional farms and is pesticide-free. In addition, we have deployed technology for complete food transparency through QR codes that give complete visibility of the growing process of the vegetable produced in our farms.

VeggiTech's current operations  and plans in H1 2021

VeggiTech is in the business of offering farming as a service, where it builds and operates digital smart farms that are sustainable and environmentally-friendly for our customers. With a team of over 160+ professionals; and one of the strongest agronomy and engineering teams in the region, we are poised for growth over the next 3 – 5 years.

In the first half of 2020, despite the COVID–19 circumstances we have signed contracts for 13,000 sq.ft. grow area of indoor vertical farms, and are building protected hydroponic farms of 80,000 sqft. You will experience buying live produce from our indoor vertical farm installations in all Sharjah Co-operative Society stores soon with the first one going live in Al Rahmaniya Mall, Sharjah, next month.

We opened our Helsinki, Finland, offices in March 2020; joined the Association of Vertical Farming (AVF) headquartered in Munich, Germany, where we have been invited to play a lead role in creating industry standards for Indoor Vertical farms world-wide.

VeggiTech was invited by the Ministry of Education and Food and Water Security Office to host a webinar series “Grow Your Food” for students in the Youth Summer Camps across July and August 2020. We live-streamed the informative sessions from our farms providing insights on achieving food security through technology. The audience was segregated into three batches of 6 – 10-year-olds; 10 – 14-year-olds and 14 – 18-year-olds.

We are currently in advanced discussions with private investors and government organizations in Sharjah, Dubai and Abu Dhabi on large scale projects to make UAE food secure with good quality local food.

Sustainable Communities

VeggiTech has recently signed up for designing and developing sustainable grow areas with major players that specialize in developing sustainable communities in UAE. This exciting development underlines our vision of bringing “grow” spaces close to our “living” spaces.

Sustainable agro - Economic model

Dubai SME, the agency of Dubai Economy, mandated to develop the small and medium enterprise (SME) sector, collaborated with VeggiTech through their Innovation Accelerator program and commissioned it to install an Indoor Vertical farm in their Business Village campus in Deira Dubai (scheduled to go live in Q4 2020). This set-up would showcase the circular farm-to-fork economic model with the Indoor Vertical farm (IVF), growing green leafy, herbs, and microgreens, and these are converted into end consumer produce in the form of farm-fresh salads / curated recipe packages.

Food security

We are upbeat on the current pipeline of projects (10M+ sqft of farms - protected hydroponics; 200,000+ sqft of Indoor vertical farms) to be signed in Q3 / Q4 2020 and these would start producing over 25million kgs of produce every year from 2021 - 2022. The optimal use of land assets combined with the reduction in water resources and pesticide-free crops are an ideal example of using technology to align with UAE’s food security goals.

Social impact

While the COVID – 19 circumstances are charting unprecedented scenarios across our lives; we, as the local farmers, were privileged to work with Sharjah Charity Association, Shurooq, The Noodle House, and Dubai Police to support our heroes, our frontline healthcare workers, and families, with over 20 tons of our farm fresh vegetables delivered contactless. 

VeggiTech is privileged to play its role in this journey.

Source Courtesy of Gulf News

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