(MENAFN- Straits Research) Vertical farming is the cultivation of crops with limited area and resources. It is a method of vertically harvesting crops on shelves and towers instead of typical horizontal farming. Vertical farming involves cultivating plants within, under artificial lighting and temperature conditions. In other words, vertical farming aims to increase yield per unit area. Vertical farming emphasizes efficiency, such as producing crops more quickly than conventional farming, by utilizing technology like sensors, robotics, LEDs to replace the sun, and algorithms to optimize lighting and growing conditions.
Market Dynamics
Advantages of Vertical Farming over Conventional Farming Drives the Global Market
Vertical farming's advantages include year-round crop production for human and animal consumption, constant quality, and predictable output. Vertical farming allows faster growth cycles and harvests; hence, more crops can be grown annually in a significantly smaller area than on a conventional farm. One of the highest-yielding farms in vertical farming yields nearly 350 times more crops per square yard than a normal farm. In metropolitan areas, vertical farms also build a farm-to-table ordering system, greatly reducing food packaging, waste, and transportation fuel usage. Vertical agriculture is more productive and efficient than conventional agriculture, encouraging market expansion.
Integration of Technology with Vertical Farming Creates TremendOpportunities
IoT is the foundation of vertical farming due to its extensive sensor and actuator technology application. By integrating crop-specific solutions, pertinent hardware, and devices for real-data collecting, data analysis, and autonomactuator application, numertechnology-based enterprises play a vital part in making the technology practicable for crop production. In addition, technology-based businesses can use wireless sensors to capture valuable data, such as variations in natural light and growing environment data, such as temperature and pH. In addition, manufacturers of vertical farms worldwide are partnering with a technology company to build an automated, compact, high-performance vertical farm. These elements will provide enormmarket development opportunities in the next years.
Regional Analysis
North America is the most significant
global vertical farming market
shareholder and is anticipated to exhibit a CAGR of 28.9% during the forecast period. North America is one of the essential regions for expanding and growing the global vertical farming industry. In North America, there is a strong emphasis on alternative agricultural methods, which has resulted in a higher acceptance rate for vertical farming in the region. Vertical farming and food production is an ideal answer to the region's food demand due to its ability to supply high-quality, nutrient-dense, fresh crops close to metropolitan centers from which highly perishable goods are promptly transported to the market. Some major firms, such as AeroFarms, Squareroot, and American Hydroponics, are headquartered in North America, which is anticipated to dominate the worldwide vertical farming market.
Europe is projected to exhibit a CAGR of 26.7% over the forecast period. Europe has a relatively modest number of vertical farms, but the industry is expanding rapidly. Nonetheless, farms have undergone a considerable increase in recent years. There are increased investments and a profusion of startups concurrently. Following a global trend, the development of this industry is mostly attributable to the concurrent decline in the cost of LED lighting technology and the rising customer demand for fresh, healthful, and locally-grown produce that requires few inputs. There are now two non-profit international associations for vertical farming in Europe: the Association for Vertical Farming (AVF) and the Farm Tech Society (FTS). The FTS concentrates on the controlled environment agriculture (CEA) industry, of which vertical farming is a subset, whereas the AVF is solely concerned with vertical farming.
Key Highlights The global vertical farming
market
was valued at
USD 8.47 billion in 2022 . It is estimated to reach
USD 59.13 billion by 2031 , growing at a
CAGR of 24.1%
during the forecast period (2023–2031). Based on the mechanism, the global vertical farming market is divided into hydroponics, aquaponics, and aeroponics.
The hydroponics segment is responsible for the largest market share and is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of 25.8% over the forecast period. Based on product, the global vertical farming market is segmented into lighting devices, hydroponic components, climate control, sensing devices, and others.
The lighting devices segment owns the highest market share and is expected to exhibit a CAGR of 26.4% during the forecast period. North America is the most significant global vertical farming market shareholder and is anticipated to exhibit a CAGR of 28.9% during the forecast period.
Competitive Players
The key global vertical farming market players are AeroFarms, Plenty Unlimited Inc., Kalera, AppHarvest, Heliospectra AB, Signify Holding, OSRAM GmbH., EVERLIGHT ELECTRONICS CO., LTD., Valoya, Sky Greens, Hort Americas, and SPREAD Co., Ltd.
Market News In February 2023,
Plenty Unlimited is "scaling up" its research and development (R&D) skills in vertical farming by opening a new research facility in the United States. Plenty intends to construct the "world's largest and most advanced vertical-farming research center" due to the USD 300 million it invested last year to build an indoor, controlled-environment farm complex on a 485,000-square-metre plot in Richmond, Virginia.
In February 2023, Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund inked a joint venture agreement with U.S.-based AeroFarms to form a company in Riyadh that would construct and run indoor vertical farms in Saudi Arabia and the broader Middle East and North Africa region.
Global Vertical Farming Market: Segmentation
By Mechanism Hydroponics Aquaponics Aeroponics
By Product Lighting Devices Hydroponic Components Climate Control Devices Sensing Devices Others
By Regions North America Europe Asia-Pacific The U.K. China The Middle East and Africa Rest-of-the-World