US: Lighting partnership to market LED growing lights

In 2015 Hort Americas became the North American master distributor and marketing partner of LED grow lights manufactured by GE Current, a Daintree company. This month Hort Americas has signed an agreement with Irrigation Design & Construction LLC (IDC) in Castroville, Calif., for IDC to become an authorized dealer of Current Arize LED grow lights. The agreement between the two companies establishes IDC as a dealer of Current Arize horticultural products with the rights to sell Current products including parts and accessories in IDC’s sales area.

IDC is primarily an agricultural irrigation company that designs, engineers and installs irrigation, fertigation, and climate control systems for both field crop growers and controlled environment growers, including greenhouses, vertical farms, and inside grows. IDC operates 14 warehouses in California with plans to expand with facilities in the Pacific Northwest and Arizona.

Meeting the needs of growers
Although commercial agriculture still makes up the majority of IDC’s business, Hort Americas’ President Chris Higgins could not be more excited about the partnership.

“IDC brings the commercial and professional experience we look for in a business partner,” Higgins said. “In addition to their long-standing California ag presence, IDC has spent the last six years working with more controlled environment growers of vegetables, including leafy greens, and cannabis.”

“With controlled environment growers we are designing, engineering, and installing automated irrigation systems, fertigation systems, water treatment systems, and climate control systems,” said Frank Toves, Regional and Precision Irrigation Manager at IDC. “Adding Current’s line of Arize LED grow lights to our product offerings gives us the opportunity to help growers better control their production environment.

“We are receiving an increasing number of inquiries from cannabis growers about the design and installation of grow lights. These growers are primarily indoor grow operations, but there are more inquiries coming from greenhouse growers as well.”