June 6, 2017

AgTech trends – I’ve been traveling the last two weeks meeting with agricultural stakeholders.

Japanese agtech firms are proliferating to meet the demographic and productivity challenges of farming in Japan, and they wish to offer their solutions across Asia, and the world. I met with firms with robotics technologies for handling delicate fruit, farmer social media products to exchange information anonymously, home-based insect farm “appliances”, a music company’s efforts to boost plant growth through, yes, music, and a prominent controlled farming operation with major expansion plans.

While some groups were small with modest capital-raising plans, quite a few were large branded corporations entering the space (Sony, Mizuho, etc.). I was particularly impressed with a firm named Spread in Kyoto, Japan, and its current 21,000 head per day leafy green operation. It has plans for a new facility producing 30,000 head per day with much fewer staff requirements. Already profitable at the lower yield, keep an eye out for this firm.