Japan consortium to cultivate veggie factory business in Middle East
Showa Denko, Marubeni and Chiyoda are moving toward signing a contract with United Arab Emirates conglomerate Al Ghurair as early as this month. A demonstration factory will be built by year-end if all goes smoothly.
The roughly 100-sq.-meter hydroponic vegetable factory will use light-emitting diodes instead of the sun to produce 12.5kg of leafy greens a day. It will use a tenth as much water as a greenhouse or a conventional farm in the UAE, since it will not lose water to evaporation or soil absorption.
Al Ghurair plans to sell output from the factory through a supermarket unit, targeting the wealthy. It will consider constructing a full-scale facility later.
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