Aug 4, 2017

Vertical Farming Continues to Climb By Tim Hodson

As the global urban population continues to grow and the demand for quality food to feed this population rises, the use of vertical farming practices is expected to flourish also.

According to a new report published by Acumen Research and Consulting, the global market for vertical farming is estimated to grow at a significant rate and reach a market value of more than $6 billion by 2023. In 2015, the market was valued at $1 billion, so you can see there is a lot of growth potential in vertical farming.

The report says that much of the growth can be attributed to the fact that the food for the growing urban population needs to be grown in urban areas — and the best way to do that is to use vertical farms.

The study looks at the different vertical farming techniques including hydroponics, aquaponics and aeroponics. Among these, hydroponics is the most preferred growing method of vertical farming. This segment accounted for more than half of the total market revenue in 2014 and the dominance of this segment is expected to continue over the next five years.

The most popular vertically grown crops are greens, fruits, flowers, vine crops, strawberry, herbs, tomatoes and cannabis. Leafy greens was the largest segment in 2014, in terms of revenue, and accounted for around $273 million revenue in 2014. This segment is expected to maintain its dominance through 2023 as leafy greens are the major element in the food in every part of the world. 

Have you considered vertical farming for your growing operations? What growing techniques are you considering? What kind of crops do you plan to grow?

To learn more about Acumen’s report on vertical farming, go to www.acumenresearchandconsulting.com/vertical-farming-market.

Toot Our Horn

Last week, GPN was honored with two awards from the American Agricultural Editors’ Association (AAEA) at its annual Ag Media Summit in Snowbird, Utah. 

GPN’s 2017 Guide to Cannabis Production took home top honors in the Special Editorial Section Design category and our October 2016 issue took second place in the Overall Magazine Design category.

Hats off to our graphic designer, Greg Ryan!

— Tim