Oishii Farm blends bees, LEDs, robotics, and Japanese flavor tradition to grow premium strawberries and produce all year long—bringing "sweet" innovation to the farm, the lab, and your table. The WorldFolio recently interviewed the President of Oishii Farms, Hiroki Koga.
To start, I'd like to discuss your presence in Japan. We understand that you established your subsidiary there in 2023 and plan to begin operations at the Open Innovation Centre in Tokyo later this year. This initiative is supported by government grants and investors such as NTT and Mizuho Bank. It seems the goal is to position your company not just as a U.S.-based agri-tech startup, but as a forward-looking model for addressing global food security challenges—particularly those related to climate change and supply chain disruptions.
Could you share whether the Open Innovation Centre is intended as a blueprint or turnkey solution for vertical farming, one that can be scaled across major cities worldwide? Given the complexities, how do you envision making this technology broadly deployable?
Thank you for that excellent question. You've touched on one of our core challenges and goals. When you consider even something as seemingly straightforward as an air conditioner within a vertical farm, there are countless variables—angles, temperature settings, humidity levels—that have to be carefully calibrated. Currently, our engineers individually tune each element. Without our highly specialized team, setting up these systems isn't feasible.
Read more at The WorldFolio