Panasonic has announced its pilot commercial supply of locally-harvested vegetables to Japanese restaurant, Ootoya. The premium Japanese crop varieties, mini red radish; red leafy lettuce; and mizuna (potherb mustard) are cultivated in the country’s first licensed indoor vegetable farm with controlled and optimised conditions.
In land scarce Singapore where only 8% of vegetables consumed are grown in local farms*, Panasonic aims to contribute to the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority’s (AVA) vision of raising self-sufficiency level for leafy vegetables through its technology and harvest. The company targets to increase its contribution to local production from the current 0.015% to 5% by FY2016, fiscal year ending March 2017.
Hideki Baba, Managing Director, Panasonic Factory Solutions Asia Pacific, said, “Combining Panasonic’s technological and manufacturing expertise, these premium Japanese crops are grown in optimum conditions, where temperature, humidity and CO2 levels are monitored and controlled, ensuring stable, high-quality production throughout the year. The soil-based cultivation is pesticide-free and complies with AVA’s stringent food safety standards. Our indoor vegetable farm is also HACCP certified. With over 90% of the food consumed in Singapore being imported, Panasonic hopes the indoor vegetable farm can contribute to the nation’s food self-sufficiency levels and at the same time provide a better life and a better world through improved food quality.”
The 248m2 indoor agriculture facility currently produces 10 types of vegetables – green and red leafy lettuce, mizuna (potherb mustard), mini red and white radish, rocket lettuce, basil, ooba (mint herb), mitsuba (wild parsley) and baby spinach. Both leafy and root vegetables are cultivated in the controlled soil-based environment with LED lighting. At present, total production capacity is at 3.6 tonnes annually. Through this local indoor cultivation, customers can potentially gain significant savings compared to purchasing similar premium Japanese produce that are imported.
The company is strengthening its research and development efforts to accelerate harvest such as increasing shelf capacity (vertical farming), shortening cultivation lead time from 35 days to 28 days, improving area productivity and expanding crop variety. By FY2016, Panasonic is looking to grow more than 30 crop varieties.
MOST POPULAR IN LAST 24 HRS
MOST POPULAR IN LAST 7 DAYS
|
