Philips Lighting Announces First Russian LED Cucumber Project With Agrokultura Group and New Partner Svetogor
Philips Lighting Announces First Russian LED Cucumber Project With Agrokultura Group and New Partner Svetogor
Philips Lighting today announced it has installed its first LED grow light project for cucumber cultivation in Russia with Agrokultura Group, LLC, and its new business partner Svetogor. Agrokultura is a large supplier of greenhouse grown cucumbers and tomatoes located near Moscow. The company is trialing a hybrid installation with HID top lighting and GreenPower LED interlighting on 7,550 square meters with the aim of increasing its yields, predictability and reducing energy costs.
“We use lighting from September to April in our cucumber greenhouse for about 4,000 hours. Reducing the electricity costs for our lighting system could significantly increase the profitability of the greenhouse,” says Vladimir Chernyshev, CEO of Agrokultura Group, LLC. “Besides reducing energy costs, we are expecting to see an increase in yields which would allow us to pay back the LED modules within the first three to four years of their use. The return on investment we achieve in the trial will be crucial for helping us decide whether to switch our full 30 hectares of greenhouse to LED lighting. We are partnering with Philips Lighting because of its high-quality technical solutions and ability to supply big orders in a relatively fast time frame.”
“Our recent participation in Russian projects like LLC Agro-Invest, the largest LED project in the world for cucumbers and tomatoes, has created a lot of interest across Russia and other parts of the world,” said Udo van Slooten, Business Leader Horticulture at Philips Lighting. “We know that lighting costs make up a significant share of operational costs for Russian growers, and we are eager to help Agrokultura increase its yields and reduce its energy consumption with the use of our LED technologies.”
This project is being implemented by Svetogor, a turnkey project lighting and horticultural lighting company headquartered in Moscow. Svetogor produces its own innovative HID lighting fixtures for greenhouses and has built up a great deal of experience in LED technologies based on its implementation of more than 100 large-scale projects with LED lighting in the last five years.
The partnership with Philips Lighting was announced on Wednesday morning @ Fruit Logistica, the fresh produce trade show in Berlin, February 7-9, 2018