“We’re about two years on the Singaporean market now as we’ve always had a plan to build a farm there. We managed to obtain co-founding from governments and our shareholders to supply the remaining part,” says Henner Schwarz, CEO of &ever. According to Henner, the Singaporean market is an interesting market with an interesting ecosystem for vertical farming.
Potential
“The Singaporean market is not only suitable for vertical farming, but also has a great ecosystem. There are well established players in the indoor farming scene, such as universities, lighting suppliers, R&D companies, large industrial partners, and so on. It’s great to be with partners that can all come together in this young industry to develop interesting projects,” says Henner.
Discovering the market
He continues, “Currently, the company is looking at the entire distribution channel, from end-consumers, restaurants, hotels and supermarkets. The process of selling directly to consumers is quite complex as there are a variety of different steps to make. But for us it could be more interesting to approach someone that is not in the business yet. We’re trying to get the best potential out of the market to see which one is most suitable.”
Henner Schwarz
The company has done a great deal of R&D on crops and is now working together with potential distribution partners on which Asian greens to produce. 60% of the to be cultivated products for the Singaporean market will be similar to other farms. &ever’s growing systems enable them to grow small vegetables and Asian salads.
“We will eventually have a product mix of what it will look like. There’s a large market for Asian salads, but we’ll definitely also be going for Asian greens. Partnering with distributors that have an existing network would make more sense, because we want to deliver a larger basket to the end consumer, with a big variety of products,” says Henner.
Crop varieties
&ever is also piloting with several new crops. “We're not only focusing on leafy greens, but also strawberries which have a huge potential in the market. Eventually we will produce more crop varieties once the farm is at scale. We’re in the beginning phase of understanding how strawberries can be grown indoors, within the right growing circumstances. Now, it’s all about finding the right varieties and optimizing the growing recipes. As they might work well in indoor farming, we need to better look at the housing process. It’s a very interesting field with a great potential to be researched.”
Hybrid lighting
The company is looking into sustainability and in doing so is focusing on hybrid lighting. For example, they have a project where sunlight is combined with LED lights. However, more research is needed on many different aspects as “we are trying to be the most efficient player in a cost efficient manner,” Henner says.
For more information:
&ever
Henner Schwarz, CEO
shs@andever.de
www.and-ever.com