Are Hong Kong’s Vertical Farms the New Teslas of Agriculture?

90% of Hong Kong’s food supply consists of imports. With the city’s four pillars all centered around service industries, it shouldn’t be a surprise that agriculture makes up less than 0.1% of Hong Kong’s annual GDP. Responsible for this is simply a lack of space and fertile land. However, in view of recent technological advances, a handful of entrepreneurs are trying to find a workaround by developing indoor vertical farms. Believing that there will always be demand for high-quality fresh fruits and vegetables, these businesses are filling a fast-growing niche market.

Traditional outdoor farming has a lot of downsides. Not only does it require a lot of space, energy and water, but it is also susceptible to damage from insects and diseases, requiring the use of potentially harmful pesticides.

Vertical farming, on the other hand, eliminates all those problems. The stacking of plants means that space can be reduced significantly; and operating indoors, there is no need to worry about pests. Most notably, however, the closed indoor ecosystem offers a drastic reduction in water usage and energy. Add in technologies such as intelligent lighting systems, and you’ve turned the place into a hyper-efficient food production facility. The benefits regarding vertical farming are clear; now, it is only a question of scalability and reduction in setup costs.

Farm66 is among the few start-ups in Hong Kong successfully operating vertical farms. Since its founding in 2013, the business has seen lots of growth, its most recent goal being to achieve a monthly produce yield of 16 tons. Besides operating completely pollution-free, Farm66 also claims that its operations require 85% less space and 90% less water compared to traditional outdoor farms. Similarly, Farmacy, a business selling mobile farming systems to retail and food outlets, says its product reduces land use by a factor of 100.

Naturally, there is still a long way to go for vertical farming to become the norm. Currently, produce from vertical farms is still associated with a relatively high price tag and is currently only available in places such as Hong Kong’s City Super. But with the global market for vertically farmed food predicted to grow fivefold by 2026, it will become easier by the day to find these products on your local supermarket’s shelves.

This article was originally published in February 2021 in The BASE Bulletin. Cover photo by Francesco Gallarotti on Unsplash.