Covid made people aware of their food intake and thus the business boomed. Tower requests were rising rapidly and demand could barely keep on. The biggest benefit of that was their online presence as about 70% of the businesses are offline, Gary Law, Founder and CEO of Victory Farm @ Rooftop Malaysia explains.
That's what turned many sales into residentials that were using the devices for their own. Not long after that, the company received many endorsements, grants and licenses that really boosted the business.
Gary Law
Agropreneurs that want to grow themselves can reach out to the company as they have a course ready for them on which varieties to cultivate, the tips and tricks behind it and what’s necessary to be commercially viable. “We can set up a new vertical farm anywhere up to any size, though indoors is preferred due to the external interferences these days.”
Gary has always been pleating to better the environment. With that in mind, Gary was set on finding something that allows households to grow plants on their own indoors, whatever the weather conditions are, as that didn’t exist yet in Malaysia. Experimenting by himself with various hydroponic systems, it came to mind that this could have been done in a better way.
A display of the indoor farm systems
Whilst testing the greens himself, being his own guinea pig he shared laughing, he then decided the produce was approved and wanted to start his own farm. That’s why he soon followed up on that ambition and started his own rooftop farm that encompasses a humble 100m2. He now is able to harvest 1000kg of vegetables per growing cycle every month, on average.
Once word was spread, many came to travel down to his farm as it was not yet seen much in the country. Though, one issue came up every time: they wanted these veggies transported to other states in Malaysia.
Victory Farms' systems
Gary decided that he was going to manufacture the growing towers himself so they could be easily distributed to households, schools, organizations and so on. Soon that took off like crazy. “We made sure that the setup was going very easy and we even have some instruction videos that show entirely how the tower can be set up. One of the many reasons that we have our nationwide customers' successful growing testimonies is that our product is user-friendly and convenient and our dedicated team to ensure our users grow through care and comprehensive approach.”
Though, after a proper peak, there was a massive lockdown due to covid. Local farmers dumped hundreds of tonnes of vegetables, due to restrictions on traffic and market operating hours under the movement control order MCO have adversely affected the supply chain for vegetables and raw food. People were panicking over food shortages during this pandemic period.
A small setup of the growing towers
Visible trend
“As mentioned before, Covid really drove households and individuals to be more aware of their fresh produce intake. We’re adding onto that that it’s right at their home, grown fresh and it can be done by anyone. Agriculture is rising, and many are opting for vertical smart farming in Malaysia,” Gary claims.
"Nonetheless, worldwide food insecurity is on the rise due to impacts of climate change, war, etc that lead to drought, storms, flash floods, pestilences, massive crop damage, inflation, food shortage, famine, etc. We ought to be self-sufficient and resilient towards these catastrophic events. Thus our tagline, Growing Vertical, Creating Sustainable Impact for Humanity. We envisioned that the future of farming will no longer be harmful to earth but to co-habit with nature creating a balanced and sustainable ecosystem, that will feed 10 billion people by 2050.”
Gary and a content customer
At this point, Malaysia is the main focus for Victory Farm as it doesn’t have enough domestic supply yet meanwhile welcoming angel impact investors and strategic alliance partnerships. Then, the company will expand to Southeast Asia, Asia and beyond. Though, we’ll expand into more innovative vertical farming systems that are able to grow fruiting and rooting crops vertically such as tomatoes, berries and sweet potatoes.
For more information:
Gary Law, Founder and CEO
admin@victoryfarmatrooftop.com
Victory Farm @ Rooftop Malaysia
https://victoryfarmatrooftop.com