Indoor farming projects have been touted for their environmental benefits, but a lack of scalability and profitability have caused smart farm startups to fail all over the world.
However, Seoul-based automatic indoor farming startup n.thing is betting on a modular approach for success. The company found that shipping containers are appealing as scalable indoor vertical farming units, especially in countries that are short of fertile land.
The key to its flagship Planty Cube farming facility is a cluster of multiple 12-meter cargo containers, Kim Hye-yeon, CEO and co-founder of n.thing, said in an interview with The Investor.
“A stand-alone, single-unit shipping container is not suitable for farmers to do business,” the 34-year-old said. “The scheme to allow multiple shipping containers to be connected appealed to clients when they wanted to see how much space to use for indoor farming before their decision to buy.”
Farm owners may customize production volume and optimize green-growing environments simply by adding or removing cargo containers, making it easier to reflect the needs of farm owners with high flexibility.