ccording to Reuters, Plenty Inc., an indoor agriculture startup company in the United States, is seeking land for a new farm in a Chinese city. This is part of the company's global establishment of high-tech facilities. They build facilities using LED lights to grow organically in warehouses. vegetables.

Plenty's CEO Matt Barnard told Reuters on Wednesday that China may have at least 300 such large farms. Supporters behind this company include Amazon and Softbank Group, a Japanese technology investment company.

Barnard said in an interview in Beijing that at present, the company is recruiting staff in China and identifying suitable locations and distributors in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen. According to Barnard, the company has hired a team in Japan and "locked in" some farm sites there.

He did not disclose the financial or investment objectives of the company’s expansion. Plenty currently operates only one farm in San Francisco and the other will open in Seattle in the first half of 2018.

Barnard said: “We have seen a huge opportunity to allow people to taste more delicious products, and far exceeds anything in the market today in terms of health and safety.”

Plenty's agricultural model means that vegetables and herbs are grown on indoor vertical towers, and nutrients are transported to the plants through the water circulation system. At the same time, LED lighting stimulates the rapid growth of plants throughout the year. In addition, closed farms reduce pests and allow companies to optimize growth conditions.

This may be a great attraction for China. China's per capita arable land is less than one-third of the United States, and in many places, domestic soil is contaminated by heavy metals and pesticides.

Barnard said that many farms are designed for 3 to 10 acres (1.2 to 4 hectares) and can produce 150 to 350 times the equivalent of farmland.

Chinese consumers’ concerns about food safety are also a major opportunity. These farms in China will have an "experience center" where people can taste the products and see how they are produced.

Barnard said: "People can trust it, which is very important." He expects the Chinese market will contribute 25% to 50% of the business in the future.

The company is communicating with restaurants, online retailers and some supermarkets to distribute the product. The pricing of this product will be higher than most of the products on the Chinese market.

The location of these indoor farms can be located close to the city, which can reduce the transportation from the field to the supermarket and avoid affecting the freshness of agricultural products (7.73 -0.51%). This allows Plenty to have a variety of choices rather than considering the ability of a particular vegetable variety to withstand transport.

Of course, Plenty also has their concerns, that is the cost of operating the lighting system.

He said: "China's electricity prices are higher than in California." He added that as long as the farm is located in the best place for electricity, the farm can still succeed.