Hydroponics News
- March 2024: INSONGREEN announced a significant expansion of its hydroponic and vertical greenhouse production in the Middle East and Africa. This initiative aims to tackle regional water scarcity and food security challenges by utilizing advanced agricultural technologies for sustainable development.
- January 2024: Bright Farms expanded its greenhouse hydroponic farms to three locations: Yorkville, Illinois; Lorena, Texas; and Macon, Georgia. This expansion will increase the company's capacity to supply leafy greens.
- October 2022: GrowGeneration Corp (GRWG) opened a 9,000-square-foot store in Richmond, its first hydroponic store in Virginia. GRWG has plans to expand its store presence in the state to capitalize on the emerging hydroponic market. It also signed two new leases for store launches in Mount Holly, NJ, and Hazelwood, MO, which were expected to open by the end of 2022. With these, GRWG expanded its reach to 17 states.
- July 2022: Bustanica unveiled the world's largest hydroponic farm, which received a USD 40 million investment. This facility marks the debut of Emirates Crop One's vertical farm, a collaboration between Emirates Flight Catering (EKFC) and Crop One. Emirates Flight Catering is one of the largest catering operations globally, serving over 100 airlines. Crop One is a technology-driven indoor vertical farming leader.
Related Agricultural Machinery and Technology Industry News
- August 2023: Plenty Unlimited Inc., a San Francisco-based company, began construction on a vertical indoor farming campus that, when completed, is likely to be the largest such operation in the world. The campus, to be developed in phases totaling USD 300 million, will sit on 120 acres in the Meadowville Technology Park.
- February 2022: Aero Farms announced a new tomato research partnership with FFAR and the University of Florida to provide vertical farms with a path to growing high-yielding crops that produce flavored tomatoes in environmental conditions.
- January 2022: Plenty and Walmart announced the long-term investment to bring fresh, peak-flavor produce to shoppers year-round.
- January 2022: Deere & Co. stated that it developed a fully autonomous tractor designed for large-scale farming and sold the machine later that year.
- March 2021: CNH Industrial has completed a minority investment in a US-based agriculture technology company Monarch Tractor. Monarch pioneered tractor technology incorporating electrification, autonomous use, and data management and developed an electric tractor platform that combines a fully-electric powertrain with autonomous technologies to help advance farming operations.
The new players entering the indoor vertical farming market can fetch profits by choosing the most profitable crops and using the correct facility systems. The companies are also trying to span the globe to capture the markets early, especially in Asia-Pacific regions.
October 2022: AeroFarms have decided to expand nationwide from the Northeast region to all whole food markets, especially after seeing increasing demand for their specialty green. AeroFarms will be the first indoor farming company to be part of the Whole Foods Market Global Planogram.
October 2022: Singrow, a Singapore-headquartered agtech company planned to expand across and beyond Asia and launch its consumer concept brand Blooom. The company plans to increase its partner farm footprint to the Philippines, Thailand, Hong Kong, and the Middle East, beyond its current presence in China, Indonesia, and Singapore.
February 2022: Infarm is planning to expand in the United States, by building its second growing center in kyle, the center is said to be 50,000 sqft, and expected to produce 2.2 million pounds of salads per year.
- November 2022: VST Tillers Tractors Ltd and ZETOR TRACTORS unveiled two best-in-class tractors at the CII Agro Tech India 2022 exhibition. These 45 HP and 50 HP category tractors are jointly developed by VST & ZETOR at their India & Czech Republic plants.
- July 2021: New Holland North America launched T7 Heavy-duty Tractor with PLM Intelligence as an addition to its line of agricultural tractors. The new tractor is aimed to help farmers be more productive, enabling multi-tasking in a variety of field and transport applications.
- June 2022: Solis Yanmar company launched three new tractor models in the below 30 HP category for Turkish farms that are to be exported from India.
- June 2022: Agricultural vehicle supplier Argo Tractors South Africa inaugurated its new head office in South Africa. The new premise was built at the cost of USD 5. 88 million, hosts a 6000 square meter building, including office space, a 650 square meter showroom, a 100 square meter training facility, 2300 square meters dedicated to assembly, and 2000 square meters designated for spares.
- August 2022: Deere & Company invested in Hello Tractor, an ag-tech company based in Nairobi, Kenya. The company links tractor owners with smallholder farmers in Africa and Asia through a farm equipment-sharing app. It helps farmers to track and manage their fleets, schedule customers, and access financing options.
- November 2021: Mahindra South Africa (SA) launched a new range of tractors and farm equipment in the domestic market. The range included products from Sampo Rosenlew, of Finland, Mitsubishi Mahindra Agri Machinery of Japan, and Hisarlar and Erkunt equipment from Turkey. Together with the Mahindra EarthMaster Yellow Metal and Mahindra Powerol Generators, the company offered these products as a 'World of Solutions' to the South African farmer.
January 2022: John Deere introduced a fully autonomous tractor. The machine combined Deere's 8R tractor, TruSet-enabled chisel plow, GPS guidance system, and new advanced technologies, which will help the company expand its footprint in the precision agriculture field.
November 2021: CNH Industrial acquired Raven Industries, a leading precision agriculture technology company in the United States, for USD 1.2 billion. This acquisition is expected to help the company invest and innovate in groundbreaking precision agriculture technology.
May 2021: John Deere announced the acquisition of autonomous driving technology-based startup Bear Flag Robotics for USD 250 million. This acquisition is expected to help both companies deliver advanced technological solutions to farmers.
April 2021: Aerofarms partnered with Hortifrut SA, a certified B corporation in Chile. The partnership is expected to focus on researching and developing blueberry and cranberry production in fully-controlled vertical farms and indoor environments.
May 2021: BrightFarms opened its latest indoor farm in Hendersonville, North Carolina. The 6-acre greenhouse is expected to produce 2 million pounds of lettuce per year. Similarly, in 2019, Bright Farms expanded its construction unit with three new sustainable greenhouse farms in Massachusetts, New York, and North Carolina.
May 2021: Bowery Farming, a New York City-based vertical farming startup, declared a USD 300 million Series C round of funding. Bowery stated that it would use the funds to continue the expansion of its network of smart indoor farms across the United States.
In April 2021, France-based indoor farming company Les Nouvelles Fermes raised EUR 2 million (approximately USD 2.4 million) in its first round of funding by the investors from IRDI, the Banque des Territoires, Crédit Agricole Aquitaine, and the CIC. With this funding, the company plans to build the largest aquaponic farm in Europe.
In 2019, Superior Fresh, the leading aquaponic produce supplier in the Midwest US, expanded its greenhouse footprint from 6 acres to 13 acres and its aquaculture center from 40,000 square feet to 100,000 square feet.
In 2019, Aerofarms partnered with Dell Technologies to expand its technological requirements of machine learning and network systems. Through this partnership, AeroFarms is well-positioned to implement the right data-driven machinery by using data related to temperature, humidity, airflow, nutrients, light, water, and food safety.
- August 2022: As part of plans to support and boost the cotton industry in South Africa, the Department of Science and Innovation (DSI) and its entity, the Technology Innovation Agency(TIA), have together supplied farmers with two cotton baler machines to put an end to manual cotton baling.
- May 2022: At NAMPO, South African Agriculture Trade Show, AGCO introduced their new and improved Fendt One tractor models 1000 and 200 series, along with Fendt Ideal Combine 10T, which is said to be of higher efficiency and lower maintenance to help the farmers. They will also exhibit their high-end models in the show.
- May 2022: The auto and truck parts manufacturer, Bridgestone, entered the South African agriculture market with a new range of ultra-high performance tires designed specifically for tractors and combine harvesters.
- July 2023: Ashok Chandna, Rajasthan's Minister of State for Youth Affairs, Sports and Information & Public Relations, laid the foundation stone of the Barwas Micro Irrigation Project in Bundi district to be constructed for INR 12 crore (USD 145.3 thousand) in the state.
- June 2022: Jain Irrigation, an irrigation player based in India, merged with International Irrigation Business Rivulis to create a global Irrigation and climate leader.