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THAILAND: "We Are Lacking Research Here To Backup The Benefits of Indoor Growing"
Thai startup Wangree Fresh has been in the market for over two years now. Krisana Tamvimol, Founder and CEO has done research on more than 200 local vegetables
Thai startup Wangree Fresh has been in the market for over two years now. Krisana Tamvimol, Founder and CEO has done research on more than 200 local vegetables. Eventually, he decided to grow four different vegetables in his Wangree Fresh farm: kale, spinach, rockets and swiss chard. Wangree Fresh has had no problems with incoming orders during the pandemic.
He says: “We’ve had an increase in orders as people wanted more clean and home-delivered vegetables, in the comfort of their own house. Having reached our capacity, we haven’t been able to grow any further beyond that. Now with the pandemic, our company growth is put on hold as we cannot get into new investments and expand our business to meet the growing demand. Our supplies are still constant and we will keep producing at maximum capacity.”
Founder and CEO, Krisana Tamvimol
Under construction
The Siam Pun Sun factory, an 1800 m2 farm, will supply 50 tons of vegetables per month. The construction is about 80% completed and will be fully completed at the end of this year. The new farm is looking into giving educational courses as well. Wangree Fresh will provide educational courses on the new property as well. “I want to share my knowledge of vertical farming and my researches. So, I would love to train more people and teach them more about vertical farming so they can become engineers, scientists, or other”, Tamvimol adds.
The farm's end result
It is no coincidence that Tamvimol has established his new farm there. The farm will be located nearby the Wat Pra Baht Nam Phu temple, which is 120km north of Bangkok. The temple is run by monks who are treating people with medical needs and therefore many underprivileged people are relying on their help.
Tamvimol sees the new farm as a corporate social responsibility project because, once the construction has been completed and the net revenue has come in, all revenue will go directly to the temple. “This will help with the operations of the temple and its maintenance, so the temple won’t be in need of donors anymore. Essentially, the temple will return Siam Pun Suk’s fresh produce to its formal donors as a sign of gratitude.”
The 1800 m2 Siam Pun Sun factory
Supermarkets as a direct competitor
The company sells four different kinds of vegetables, namely kale, spinach, rockets and swiss chard. Simply because we have a pretty good calling price for them. Normally, vegetables of the same species are much more expensive in supermarkets than to what we offer. Our quality is even better. “We are competing with supermarkets in terms of price and quality. We are still researching and looking into strawberries and other fruits, but for now we haven’t gotten that far yet in terms of production”, Tamvimol says. Currently, Wangree Fresh consists of one farm and sells its products under two brands: Wangree Health, the organic wing and Wangree Fresh, using new technologies the company has been reversing over the years.
The farm currently produces at maximum capacity
Although supermarkets have been in the market for a longer time, they can’t produce in the high volume and quality like Wangree Fresh can. He continues: “Quality-wise, we are the best producers of these kinds of vegetables in Thailand. We haven’t been able to address demand in supermarkets yet”, Tamvimol confirms. He says that high-quality and clean food is mostly preferred in urban areas. However, supermarkets in the sub-urban areas do not sell this kind of high-value vegetables.
“We haven’t been able to address the demand in supermarkets so far. Simply, because we have a subscription model and we haven’t been able to address the demand of our subscribers just yet”, Tamvimol says. Since February, the company has gone from 1000 to 2000 subscriptions. Previously, we used to have 1000 subscribers and home-delivered vegetables to them on-time.”
Because the subscriptions doubled during the pandemic, the home-delivery time became longer as well. “We were at maximum capacity already, but we wanted to keep making our customers happy. A guarantee to deliver the fresh produce within 24h e.g., to maintain the freshness of the vegetables”, he adds.
Franchise model
In the future, Wangree Fresh might consider having a franchise. “As in, people signing up to use our system. However, at this point, I have my hands dirty on researching the entire growing system. There might come a franchise model where people can sign up for the consultation of our design and construction of the system. The system needs fine tuning all the time, so it’s not easy to sell it off as one package”, Tamvimol states.
Vertical farming system
“There are two main difficulties in vertical farming here. One is the adoption of new technologies. The Thai people and mostly farmers are not bold enough to try new things. They use their own systems that have been used for over decades” Tamvimol says. It’s hard for Tamvimol to get them involved and for them to try the new systems. “The second thing is that there aren’t many vertical farming systems available in Thailand. Next to that, most of the academic works are conducted by foreign researchers and we are lacking researches here to back up the benefits of indoor growing”, he says.
An impression of Tamvimol's growing system
Tamvimol has done a lot of research on technology, hardware and factors of finetuning his system. He grew up in Chiang Mai, where the main business is agriculture, and used to work in the computer hardware business. After an academic tour to Japan, he became involved with vertical farming. That’s when he decided to combine his experience in digital technology and agriculture. After spending the past few years on research: finding the right formula to grow any kind of vegetable and how many vegetables he needs to grow to generate a good return on investments.
For more information:
Wangree Fresh
Krisana Tamvimol, CEO
krisana@wangreefresh.com
www.wangreefresh.com
Publication date: Mon 24 Aug 2020
Author: Rebekka Boekhout
© HortiDaily.com
Coronavirus May Lead To More Indoor-Grown Produce Coming To Your Local Supermarkets
Supermarket chain Albertsons and San Francisco-based indoor vertical farm startup Plenty said this week that Plenty will supply its indoor-grown baby kale and other produce eventually to more than 430 stores across California beyond select Albertsons-owned Safeway and other stores in the Bay Area that currently, stock Plenty produce
Aug 13, 2020
Andria Cheng Senior Contributor Retail
I cover retail, from fashion to grocery, and its dance with technology
The coronavirus pandemic has disrupted traditional U.S. food and agriculture supply chain and proven to lend a potential growth opportunity for plant-based meat companies like Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods. It also may translate to your seeing more produce from indoor vertical farms in the so-called AgTech space.
Supermarket chain Albertsons and San Francisco-based indoor vertical farm startup Plenty said this week that Plenty will supply its indoor-grown baby kale and other produce eventually to more than 430 stores across California beyond select Albertsons-owned Safeway and other stores in the Bay Area that currently, stock Plenty produce.
The startup, which is backed by investors including Softbank, Amazon AMZN 0.0% CEO Jeff Bezos and Google GOOGL +0.6%’s former CEO Eric Schmidt, has raised more than $400 million as of Jan. 1, according to PitchBook. That puts it in the unicorn club of startups with valuation exceeding $1 billion.
When fresh produce demand soared at the start of the pandemic, the companies said Plenty was able to boost production to supply more produce to relieve store shortages.
“When COVID hit, that severely shocked the food chain and distribution centers were closed,” Matt Barnard, Plenty CEO, said on financial network CNBC Wednesday. “There were instances when Plenty was the only thing on the shelf. We were able to prove the extreme reliability of our farms and short food chain with our local farms.”
Like its rivals including AeroFarms and Bowery Farming, these indoor farms make part of the growing crop of AgTech companies that often have some sort of environmental sustainability pitch and tout the use of data science and other technology to increase crop yield and make different parts of agriculture more efficient and traceable. Plenty, for instance, said its vertical indoor farm uses less than 1% of land and 5% of water compared to traditional farming.
In another sign of growing interest in the space, Oracle ORCL -0.3% Co-founder Larry Ellison and physician Dr. David Agus in July formed Sensei Holdings that also includes an indoor-farm AgTech unit.
Investors also look to be taking a growing interest in the space, especially against the uncertain impact of the pandemic and how it may upend the global food supply chain.
AgTech venture capital investment totaled $2.2 billion in the first two quarters of this year, after a record 2019 when $2.7 billion in total was raised, according to a study by Pitchbook and VC firm Finistere Ventures, which also invests in Plenty. This is in sharp contrast to Pitchbook data showing VC funding in the battered-retail sector having slumped by more than half this year.
In the so-called food-tech category, $4.8 billion already has been raised the first six months of this year, compared to $7 billion in total last year, the research shows. Most of the funding for both the food and agriculture tech spaces this year came in the second quarter when Covid-19 escalated to become a global crisis.
As consumers increased online orders, that translated to delivery companies Deliveroo, DoorDash and Instacart rounding out the top four startups, along with plant-based meat company Impossible Foods, in getting most VC funding in the first half of this year, according to the study. A case in point, for publicly-traded Uber UBER -1.2%, Uber Eats-led delivery business has beat its mainstay ride-sharing bookings.
After the pandemic idled or shut meat plants and caused spikes in prices, Beyond Meat, which went public last year, said in May it would introduce “heavier discounting against animal protein.” Company CEO Ethan Brown said then meat supply disruptions gave Beyond “an opportunity for consumers to be aware of a different model.”
The pandemic continues to sow its disruptive effect across different sectors of the economy.
Related on Forbes: As coronavirus batters retailers, mall owner Simon Property sees an opportunity in bankrupt chains
Related on Forbes: Uber’s biggest business is officially no longer ride sharing
Lead photo: With coronavirus having disrupted food supply chain, that may provide more growth opportunities for ... [+] LIGHTROCKET VIA GETTY IMAGES
Local Company Providing Fresh Produce, Tools to Grow It All Year Long
Since opening its doors last July, Cold Acre Food Systems has been perfecting its indoor hydroponic growing systems for greens and herbs that can be harvested continually throughout the year.
August 6, 2020
The Yukon isn’t the place in the world most suited to year-round farming, given its long winters and short, unpredictable summers, but one local company is trying to change that.
Since opening its doors last July, Cold Acre Food Systems has been perfecting its indoor hydroponic growing systems for greens and herbs that can be harvested continually throughout the year.“
Hydroponics is a very old growing system and can be done in different methods,” said Carl Burgess, Cold Acre Food Systems CEO. “It’s essentially nutrient water delivered to roots to grow plants.”
The benefit of it in food production for a community sense is that there is less soil management because there is no soil management and in that way it can stabilize production year-round,” Burgess added.
The company does the majority of its farming in two shipping container-style growing facilities located on Titanium Way in the Marwell industrial area.“
Right now we are operating 6,000 planting spaces,” Burgess said. “One of those (containers) is basically equivalent to an acre of a market garden,” and “one container can give, at minimum, a weekly supply of greens to about 100 to 200 people.”
Denise Gordon, Cold Acre Food Systems lead grower, holds trays of microgreens in front of their growing unit in Whitehorse on July 26, 2020. (Crystal Schick/Yukon News)
Environmentally, the system uses 10 to 20 percent less water than the traditional method of growing, Burgess said. The carbon footprint is also greatly reduced since produce only has to travel a couple of blocks to its destination compared to being shipped on trucks, food waste is almost nonexistent because of the high reliability of growing indoors, the company uses compostable packaging, and there are no storage facilities.“
We harvest and go,” Burgess said. “It’s usually within two hours of harvesting that the produce is in the grocery stores or dropped off at someone’s home.”
What began as some test lettuce crops have turned into a diverse selection of leafy greens, like bok choy, arugula, kale, mizuna, and rainbow chard, as well as several different types of microgreens, which are similar to sprouts in appearance, and basil. The company is also experimenting with growing edible flowers and mushrooms.
Cold Acre Food Systems currently sells the vegetables it grows to several grocery stores in Whitehorse, restaurants, and cafes, and through a subscription box.“
The last year of business has been lots of fun,” Burgess said. “We went from being a very small food producer to a medium-sized food producer (in the Yukon).”
But selling the vegetables it grows isn’t the end game for this company. Building, selling, and installing growing systems is also part of Cold Acre’s business model. The company can build custom growing facilities for just about any client, from smaller at-home units to the larger commercial shipping container-style units.
Right now there are two large units that will soon be providing fresh produce to Yukon communities. The first, in partnership with the University of Calgary, is at the Kluane Lake Research Station near Silver City. Once it is up and running it will provide food to the Haines Junction and Burwash Landing areas. The second, currently still in Whitehorse, is owned by Na-Cho Nyäk Dun Development Corporation (NNDDC) and will be ready to feed people in the Mayo area this spring.
Leafy greens grow under neon lights in a shipping container style facility in Whitehorse on July 26, 2020. (Crystal Schick/Yukon News)“
We are currently fabricating a small-scale unit for demonstration/growing inside the Mayo Foods Store as part of the NNDDC project,” said Burgess.
The objective of Cold Acre Food Systems is to reduce food scarcity in the North and to enable everyone access to fresh produce year-round. “Success will be twofold,” said Burgess. “Our goal is to activate indoor growing. So success will look like a handful of growing facilities around that we either deployed or helped deploy. And success for us looks like a large growing facility that’s displacing a number of food products that right now are coming up the road and doing that cost effectively for consumers.”
Contact Crystal Schick at crystal.schick@yukon-news.com