High-efficiency production of vegetables

"Our lighting costs
have reduced 

by about 40%. At the same time, the growth rate of our vegetables has increased by 20 to 30%."

- Katashi Kai, General Manager, Agri Business Division, Shinnippou Co. Ltd.

Customer Challenge

Looking inside the facility, it can be seen that 12-level cultivation racks have been installed in the 2,000 m2 cultivation room to improve the cultivation efficiency per unit area. These provide space for at least 300,000 plants, and a daily harvest of 20,000 plants.

The right lighting

Katashi Kai describes: "The greatest advantage of a plant factory with artificial light is that it can produce and supply steadily throughout the year, irrespective of climate and environmental variations. Also, by completely eliminating dust, insects and foreign substances contamination through advanced cultivation management and hygiene control, we can produce very safe vegetables of high quality without using pesticides at all."

The company has now installed about 12,000 Philips LEDs. As a result, electricity costs are around 40% lower than when fluorescent lights were used, and the growth rate of the vegetables is 20 to 30% faster. The higher growth rate means higher yields in the same facility of a given area, which in turn means that the cost of producing a vegetable of the same quality and the same size can be reduced. At the same time, there was no change at all in the taste or nutritional value of the vegetables."

Philips GreenPower LED production module

The production module is developed for multilayer cultivation in conditioned environments with little or no daylight.

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Photo Courtesy of Philips

Source: Philips