This article is from 35dou WeChat public account, author Sun Dan.
In recent years, with the rapid changes in the global climate and the drastic reduction of arable land area, vertical farms, a new agricultural production model, have gradually entered the public eye. As the name implies, vertical farm refers to the original single-layer tiled planting mode into a vertically multi-layered agricultural model, which can use modern technology to artificially control and regulate the growing environment of crops, with high production efficiency and sustainable development.
At present, the products grown on vertical farms are mainly stem and leaf vegetables, such as lettuce, kale, arugula and sprouts, etc., which are relatively mature in planting technology, and the difficulty is small and the yield is large. Although the economic added value of tomatoes, strawberries and other products is higher, pollination problems have been hindering the large-scale cultivation of these flowering crops.
Faced with this problem, Oishii successfully came up with its own solution.
The first indoor strawberry vertical farm in the United States
Oishii is a visionary vertical farming company co-founded in 2017 by Hiroki Koga and Brendan Somerville. "Oishii" is a transliteration of the Japanese word for "delicious", and the company's goal is to introduce high-quality strawberries from Japan to the American market, change the American agricultural industry, and raise the standard of fresh fruit. In 2021, Oishii raised a total of $50 million in two Series A rounds with the participation of PKSHA Technology, Mirai Creation Fund, Social Starts, and Sony Innovation Fund.
Table: Oishii's financing Source: Crunchbase
Hiroki Koga, co-founder and CEO of Oishii, who grew up in Japan, found that the U.S. fruit industry valued quantity over quality, so he brought premium Alpine strawberry seeds to New York and created America's first indoor vertical strawberry farm. Koga combines Japanese strawberry cultivation techniques with American indoor vertical farm technology to create the highest quality strawberries. From seed to finished product, each strawberry is carefully cultivated and monitored to ensure that each product has a consistent and optimal size, flavor and texture.
Image: Oishii co-founder and CEO Hiroki Koga Image source: https://oishii.com/pages/our-story
Second, crack the bee pollination code to achieve "perfect pollination" of strawberries
Although growing strawberries on vertical farms can bring higher unit economic value to Oishii, how to promote sustainable strawberry production and achieve huge economies of scale is a real problem for the Oishii team. Unlike leafy stem vegetables, strawberries require pollination to bear fruit, so high-quality pollination is essential for Oishii's strawberry cultivation.
The main barrier to indoor pollination is that bees are disturbed by artificial lighting, and Oishii has invested heavily in research and development on bees. To replicate the strawberry growing environment of the Japanese Alps, Oishii blends technology and nature, using intelligent robots to monitor the farm's temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide content, wind speed and light conditions in real time, ensuring that bees can live comfortably in this "perfect" ecosystem and carry out "perfect pollination".
Using a combination of artificial intelligence, data, and visual recognition, farm workers can collect millions of real-time data points to monitor strawberry pollination on farms. Koga said, "We really want to crack the code for perfect pollination indoors. When I say 'perfect pollination', it's not just 30% or 60% pollination success rate; It must have a success rate of 90% or higher. ”
Photo: Smart management equipment at Oishii Vertical Farm Image source: https://oishii.com/pages/our-farms
At the same time, a professional breeding laboratory has been established within the farm, using strict methods to cultivate strawberry seedlings and smoothly transfer them to the farm for planting, so as to achieve strawberry flowering and fruiting, and make strawberry plants survive for more than 12 months without pesticides and other inputs. "This is the biggest difference between us and other startups where they say 'we know how to grow strawberries,' Koga said. ”
Third, provide the freshest strawberries to American consumers
Oishii operates three vertical farms, two in Manhattan and one in Los Angeles, and its strawberry products are sold through Whole Foods and a number of other high-end retailers. In order to ensure the taste and quality of strawberries, Oishii farmers always maintain a keen sense of the health of the crop, ensuring that the fruit is picked when it is most ripe; At the same time, the company supplies through FreshDirect, so that consumers can enjoy the freshest fruits on the day of picking.
Back in 2018, Oishii launched Omakase strawberry, a variety bred on the basis of the same strawberry in the Japanese Alps, but with a softer texture, dubbed "the softest strawberry in America", bringing a new strawberry experience to local consumers. Omakase strawberries were originally available for $5 each and are now priced at about $2.50 each.
Image: Oishii's Omakase strawberries Image credit: https://oishii.com/pages/the-omakase-berry
On February 23, 2023, Oishii launched a new strawberry variety, Koyo strawberry, which means "elated" in Japanese. This strawberry has a slightly harder texture, bright aroma, and a refreshing sweetness, a bit like American strawberry, so consumers will be more familiar with this variety of strawberry. Currently, the new variety is sold primarily in the northeastern United States, with six strawberries selling for $15.
Image: Oishii's Koyo strawberries Image source: https://oishii.com/pages/the-koyo-berry
Koga believes that Oishii's high pricing of strawberries is inextricably linked to the company's growth goals. "We are still in the early stages of development and our main task is to cultivate quality products. But our goal in the future is to make this product more affordable and widespread, so that you can buy our strawberries at more affordable prices in any supermarket. ”
In the long run, vertical farms are still a major new direction for the future development of agriculture around the world. The development of vertical farming can greatly improve the yield and quality of food. For the mainland, how to use limited land resources to produce more and higher-quality food, accelerate the production of scarce and green high-quality agricultural products, and promote agriculture from increasing production to improving quality, so as to meet the diversified needs of the 1.4 billion population for survival and development, is an important breakthrough in the development of agricultural modernization.
The strawberry cultivation at Oishii Vertical Farm gives us a reference. On the one hand, enterprises need to improve the intelligent level of agricultural management and develop smart agriculture; According to the growth characteristics of different types of agricultural products, rational use of modern technology and local characteristic resources to promote the refined development of agriculture. On the other hand, agricultural product enterprises can also cooperate with universities and research institutes to build scientific research platforms, promote the close integration of academic research and development and agricultural practice, and cultivate more comprehensive technical talents for the development of modern agriculture.