Click here for the complete photo recap of the 2016 GPEC Exhibition.
Click here for the complete photo recap of the 2016 GPEC Exhibition.
A walk on the trade show floor confirmed that innovations in Japanese horticulture are mainly driven by technology. The exhibition, which attracted 18,500 registered visitors during its previous edition in 2014, housed many manufacturers of greenhouse technology solutions, all with a slightly different approach on how to grow crops. From extensive crop controls and sometimes even robotized plant measuring tools towards futuristic looking hydroponic setups; 'the more technology the better' seems to be the credo, wether good for the crop or not. The level of technological possibilities is high, but 'crop wise' the industry still has a lot to learn.
Besides greenhouse technology, even more companies active in the field of large scale plant factories were present at GPEC. The vertical farming and plant factory industry is already a well-established and fairly large industry in Japan, but often still mainly research and subsidy driven. On the other hand, large Japanese tech multinationals like Panasonic, Fujitsu, NEC and Kubota were heavily present at the show in order to showcase their interest in these relatively new industries that many Japanese investors and companies want to enter lately.
At the show we conducted several interviews in regards to these developments which you can find in our publications later this month.