Top 10 Green House Growers Revolutionizing Horticulture Sector March 2022

When I say 'cucumber', what do you see?

Thin green slices put on eyelids on a long day broiling on a beach? Or slices mixed up with other veggies in order to prepare a salad?

Well, if you thought on the similar lines then we belong to the same league, and here is something interesting to know about cucumbers.

The cucumber, native to India has been grown as a food source for over 3000 years. But its popularity was so widespread that it did not face geographical limitations restricted to its native land.

The Indian staple food had been the favorite of the royalty- the Roman Emperor Tiberius demanded to eat cucumber every day. Even though cucumbers ripened in summers, the gardeners made sure to keep them moving on a wheel burrow in order to follow the sun.

Interestingly, during the cold months, the gardeners covered the beds using sheets of mica which is a

Heavenly Road to the Roots!

transparent stone. This transparent sheet resembles today's sheet glasses which are used in industrial size buildings in the plantation industry.

The use of the mica technique is similar to that of today's Greenhouse glass sheets which allows light to be transmitted from the sun to the plants within the structure that helps the plant to grow properly.

And yes! That's how Green House Gardening works. It is not just a today's concept but a well-practiced ancient technique.

But however, with advancing technologies and climate change, the process of growing crops and vegetables has become very popular in greenhouse settings, worldwide. Combined with the pandemic lessons in the global market, the industry is witnessing a blossom like never before.

In today's world, when it comes to plants, it is often believed that the greenhouse is a catalyst. It has given space to the gardeners to experiment, manage, and improvise while also nurturing the most wonderful plants in the garden.

With an intent to bring greenhouse growers to the spotlight, who are thriving to protect the environment we at Insights Success, present you Top 10 Green House Growers Revolutionizing Horticulture Sector. The featured organizations in the magazine are committed to customer satisfaction and success, while also dwelling to practicing horticulture alchemy and mindful activities.

To reap the fruits of motivation, do delve into the inspiring stories of Greenhouse growers, also, make sure to flip through the articles written by our in-house editorial team and CXO standpoints from the leading industry experts to have a brief taste of the sector.

Happy reading!

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March, 2022

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Featuring BriefCompany Name

Black Tulip Group btfgroup.com

Mohan Choudhery CEO

Black Tulip Group is a “family-owned and operated” group of companies with the core activity as Wholesaler, Retailer, Importer, Exporter, Grower & bespoke floral Designer of Fresh Cut Flowers and also Imports, Wholesale, Retail, and maintenance of Indoor Plants.

Color Star Growers ssgca.com

Consentio consentio.co

Matthew Karlson Managing Director

Color Star Growers of Colorado, Inc. (“Color Star” or the “Company”) is a leading grower and wholesaler of flowers and nursery stock in the United States.

Vincent Rosso Co-founder and Managing Director

Consentio is a digital platform for B2B fresh produce commerce. From farm to fork; we streamline communication, data flows and payment for a seamless buying & selling experience.

Metrolina Greenhouses metrolinagreenhouses.com Pixofarm pixofarm.com

Ivan Tchakarov Chief Horticulture Officer

Metrolina Greenhouses is a family-owned, wholesale plant and services company that was founded in April 1972. It is the largest single-site heated greenhouse in the United States at 200 acres under glass.

Rocket Farms

Farid Edrisian and Dr. Hamed Bastani CEO and CTO Charles Kosmont Founder and CEO”

Pixofarm is a mobile application that helps fruit producers optimize their harvest by measuring and forecasting fruit size and providing reliable data.

Rocket Farms is a one of a kind of agile company of growers, entrepreneurs, and innovators who create value-added living plants and agricultural services that enhance health, happiness, and the quality of life.

SnapFulfil

Speedling Inc.

Sun Gro Horticulture

Stefanie Rollins Chief Operating Officer Greg Davis President and CEO Mitch Weaver CEO

SnapFulfil delivers class-leading warehouse management solutions to customers in a range of industries including B2C and B2B retail, third-party logistics, manufacturing, food and beverage and electronics and electrical.

Speedling is motivated by its customers’ success. It understands that the vegetables in its greenhouses are the same veggies at home on its table. The organization takes pride in knowing the flowers it grows will be seen in stores across the country.

SunGro Horticulture is North America’s largest producer of horticultural-grade peat and the largest distributor of peat moss and peat and bark-based growing mixes.

Tunas Farm tunasfarm.id

Widya Surya Prayoga Co-Founder

Tunas Farm is an agritech startup and its main focus is on urban farming to create sustainable food production in urban areas by leveraging idle assets and turning them into food production using IoT and precision farming methods.

Rocket Farms is extremely proud of growing beautiful flowers and nutrient-rich edible herbs in a controlled environment in the greenhouses.

TThe domestication of plants by humans is a pivotal moment in the history of agriculture. Instead of relying on natural development, it was discovered that planting seeds or cuttings allowed the desired plants to be propagated. The significant discovery of greenhouse productions, hence, came as a result of the necessity to safeguard domesticated plants from biotic and abiotic stressors.

Protected agriculture originated as a technique to shield crops from bad weather, allowing year-round production and the use of an integrated crop production and pest management approach for better pest and disease control. Improved transportation and with the light being one of the most important factors in production, the greenhouses are considered to be the best atmosphere for crops.

With the level of sophistication and advanced technology, greenhouses are becoming a more common reality around the world, depending on the socioeconomic context and local climatic circumstances. Looking at this, Rocket Farms , a certified Minority Business Enterprise, started to grow and distribute unique, high-quality designer indoor potted plants. Based in Half Moon Bay, Rocket Farms is the nation's leading wholesale grower of plotted floral, foliage, edibles, and culinary herbs.

Extending Quality Solutions

A minority-owned and operated business, Rocket Farms is one of the largest growers of indoor potted plants, fresh-cut herbs, and potted edibles in the country. Constantly striving for innovation in its practices, Rocket Farms is on a mission to find ways to reduce the carbon footprint. With this perspective, almost all their products are grown in natural sunlight greenhouses.

These greenhouses are equipped with heat curtains that work to save energy and a unique irrigation system, which is made up of a state-of-the-art filtration system that ensures the PH and sodium levels are balanced and best for the plants. At Rocket Farms, water conservation, filtration, and cleanliness are critical to producing safe, quality food, and it is something that the company has placed a focus on their plants.

Nurturing Healthy Indoor Plants

Rocket Farms is extremely proud of growing beautiful flowers and nutrient-rich edible herbs in a controlled

,environment in the greenhouses. Rocket Farms is unique as it grows many edible herbs specifically for indoor purposes.

The company's herbs such as potted basil are specifically bred, designed, and grown to flourish in an indoor environment. Growing herbs that are designed to thrive indoors really separates the company from many other indoor or potted plants that are active in the market.

Product offerings:

Herbs- Basil, Mint, Sage, Thyme, Chives, Rosemary, Cilantro, Oregano, Parsley Plants - Orchids, Roses, Poinsettias, Venus FlyTraps, Sun Star, Holiday Trees Edibles- Tomatoes, Peppers Foliage- Peperomia Caperata Rosso, Emerald Ripple, Red Ripple, etc.

Succulents - Haworthia, Gasteria, Echeveria, Kalanchoe and Calandiva (flowering succulents), Aloe, etc.

The Dynamic Duo

Charles Kosmont , the Founder and CEO of Rocket Farms, has spent his entire adult life in the food and agriculture business and the last 25 years as the owner and CEO of Rocket Farms. His decades of experience as a horticulturist span over the areas of plants, herbs, edible herbs, and the food industry overall.

The unique thing about ours is we capture all runoff and reuse the water from our greenhouses as well.

Charles Kosmont

Founder and CEO

Nick Bavaro President

,

At Rocket Farms, we think some of the technology we have used is unique to the industry.

Nick Bavaro is the President of Rocket Farms and has an extensive background and over 40 years of experience in owning, operating, or managing companies in the agricultural sector. The pair work together to align on initiatives and the vision that they have when it comes to agriculture. Both believe that Rocket Farms has an opportunity to bring healthy, nutrient-dense products to consumers in a safe and sustainable way.

Technology Driving the Wheels of Agriculture Sector

In agriculture, technologies and practices have improved. Farmers see the importance of using water more efficiently, and throughout the sector they have employed a range of technology-based solutions such as drip irrigation and flood tables. Rocket Farms specifically utilizes flood tables which results in 35% of all water used being absorbed into the plant material. The company then is able to recover up to 65% of the remaining water used, and with cleaning and purifying is able to store it for future use.

Nick said, "By leaning into technology, we are proud to reduce our water usage and significantly increase our efficiency with this valued resource."

People at Rocket Farms not only capture and reuse the water within the greenhouses but also recapture and reuse all runoff water. It is run through a state-of-the-art filtration and storage capacity system and then through an RO system and purified to its purest form. Further, it is treated to the stage where the PH levels and sodium levels are balanced, and it's best for the plant.

Charles further said, "At Rocket Farms, we think some of the technology we have used is unique to the industry, but the unique thing about ours is we capture all runoff and reuse the water from our greenhouses as well."

Battling with the Pandemic

Concerning the pandemic condition, Rocket Farms made the tough decision to reduce overhead, preserve positions, and increase operational efficiency. These changes allowed Rocket Farms to continue to produce a premium and consistent product. Lastly, it put forth an easier transition for social distancing and space for offices to be safely apart. The management has instilled a mask policy and even held vaccination sites at its facilities.

The Changing Landscapes of Agriculture Sector

There is now tremendous interest in the field where food comes from. The young generation is now thinking about the food supply and saying where does the food come from and how they can be a part of it, which is exciting.

The myth of the past – "don't take over a farm, go work in the city and go take over a technology business" is now changing dramatically. Agriculture is a technological business. It is a business that is moving significantly and is being transformed by all these great technologies that are out there. It is an exciting time for people coming out of school to get involved with it.

Towards New Horizons

Charles and Nick are dedicated to the work at Rocket Farms. The two are the first to say that they love what they do and are committed to helping the company continue to grow and flourish in the future. They see Rocket Farms continuing the trajectory that they have already set of providing Americans with gorgeous flowers and greattasting foods that are all grown in their greenhouses.

The pair believes that with consumers, particularly Gen Z's, starting to take more of a vested interest in food and where the food they are eating comes from, Rocket Farms is at the forefront for them having the advantage of being locally grown, sustainable, and transparent with its consumers. Therefore, the duo is positioning them to be even more successful in the future when the consumer base becomes more invested in food, agriculture, and the environment.

At the Forefront of the Agriculture Revolution

Artificial Intelligence and Supply Chain Industry, when combined, have proven to give industries and their intricate processes a certain sophistication and empowerment. Implementing AI innovations in the agriculture sector—although at a nascent stage—gives us glimpses of a promising future.

As the cliché goes, ‘Necessity is the mother of invention’, let’s change it a bit and call ‘Necessity, the mother of innovation as well.’ With such an innovative idea born out of necessity and curiosity, Consentio entered the global market in 2019.

Consentio has striven to address the problem of food wastage in the world, along with the cause that leads to it. But what is more innovative than the problem, is the solution that Consentio conceived, revolutionizing the industry. With the inclusion of AI, it enhanced the fruits and vegetable industry along with the supply chain industry.

In the following conversation with Vincent Rosso , the Co-Founder and Managing Director of Consentio, he uncovered how Consentio solves the problem with a perfect blend of traditional market and modern technology.

Please brief our audience about your company, its USPs, and how it is positioned as a leading name in the horticulture sector.

Consentio addresses multiple inefficiencies within the fruits and vegetable industry. We transform every commercial conversation into structured data sets, reducing a significant amount of time spent doing manual data processing, time that can be dedicated to improving customer relationships and increasing sales at the same time.

Consentio transforms thousands of daily e-mails, excels, pdfs, faxes, phone calls (that are all too common in the fruits and vegetable sector) into a streamlined all-in-one order management platform.

With a direct plug-in into the company’s core IT legacy system, Consentio sends all the key data there in seconds, eliminating the pain of manual data entry (which is highly prone to mistakes). In this way, we are reducing ordering errors, resulting in a reduction of food loss and an increase in profit – a desirable combination for our customers.

Being an experienced leader, share with us your opinion on what impact has the adoption of AI and machine learning technologies had on the horticulture sector and what more could be expected in the future?

The primary impact that AI and machine learning technologies have had on the horticulture sector is the reduction in resource-use inefficiencies and disease prevention to make production more sustainable.

Consentio is largely implicated in the impacts of these technologies because of its strategic positioning at every stage of the farm-to-fork supply chain.

According to the UN, approximately 40% of all fruits and vegetables produced are never eaten, where

Consentio is largely implicated in the impacts of these technologies because of its strategic positioning at every stage of the farm-to-fork supply chain.

overproduction and diseaseare important drivers of this inefficiency.

By applying AI and machine learning technologies to players like Consentio, who are advantaged by their strategic positioning, the horticulture sector could limit overproduction and disease by:

1. Predicting consumer demand for fruits and vegetables to

1) help farmers and wholesalers or retailers draft contracts that are more representative of their output and consumer demand and

2) allocate excess production of fresh produce to markets that are in demand.

Vincent Rosso, Co-Founder and Managing Director

2. Tracking where disease spreads to and originates-from to

1) improve the consumer’s end-product by supplying the market with diseasefree produce and

2) helping farmers and governments take preventive measures to reduce and learn about disease spread.

These applications of AI and machine learning to precision farming and disease tracking are already in the market, nevertheless, they could be enhanced by the unique data that Consentio collects along the entire farm-to-fork supply chain.

About the leader

Vincent Rosso is the co-founder of Blablacar Spain, a car ride-sharing company that has raised $450 million from investors such as Accel, Index Ventures and Insight Partners. He is also a board member of ONTRUCK and others.

The founding team has decades of experience in the tech industry, either founding themselves or playing a pivotal role in some of Europe’s biggest success stories. Shortly after inception, Consentio hired experts within the fruits & vegetable industry bridging that knowledge gap and bringing in a team with complementary skills.

Exhibiting Excellence

Below are testimonials from three clients that highlight Consentio’s position in the market.

Jorge Vasquez, the president of Latin Specialties LLC, a wholesaler from Houston, Texas with annual revenues of $25 Million, highlights the value-add and unique characteristics of Consentio’s solution for his business in the following testimonial:

“Traditional ERP systems have a weakness, as the sales order entry does not reflect the variable and dynamic nature of our business trading.

We have hundreds of customers, retailers, wholesalers, food service companies, all of whom communicate and trade with us using a variety of channels including phone, fax, SMS, email, WhatsApp, etc.

Coordinating and consolidating this demand is a great challenge. Once received, these orders must be manually entered into our ERP system creating a considerable additional workload.

And then I found Consentio, and I realized there was a proven, ready platform that did all that we needed, and would link back to the ERP system. So, ensuring we only need to enter data once. With Consentio we save money, sell more and deliver improved customer service.”

The Greenery, a client based in the Netherlands with annual revenues over $1B, claims that using Consentio increased their sales revenue by 15% while improving collaboration within their sales teams, and fully streamlining their ordering system.

The Chief Operating Officer of Alsum, a client from Friesland, Wisconsin, Wendy Dykstra, said in an interview: “Consentio will link directly to our Microsoft Dynamics ERP system removing the need to manually enter orders and significantly reducing our workload.”

Altogether, these testimonials highlight that Consentio’s product is differentiated from traditional ERP systems and offers a dynamic sales process that eliminates the bulk of manual data entry, increasing sales revenue, enhancing customer experience, and benefiting internal processes. This positions Consentio as a disruptor of fresh produce trading by being complementary to traditional ERP systems.

Considering the current pandemic, what initial challenges did you face and how did you drive your company to sustain operations while ensuring the safety of your employees at the same time?

Consentio’s management team ended the lease of office spaces in Barcelona whole-market because of the foreseen duration of the lockdown and pandemic. We invested resources into cloud infrastructure to help our company and our clients transition their operations to fully remote. This made remote work more productive, giving employees resources to connect and work more efficiently with clients, colleagues, and other stakeholders.

The situation also reflected an opportunity for Consentio, which saw an 800% increase in active users and a nearly 400% increase in GMV over 12 months beginning in April 2020. Many buyers and suppliers depend on the platform to access new markets and have improved their internal operations while being highly competitive at the same time.

What would be your advice to budding entrepreneurs who aspire to venture into the horticulture space?

I would tell the entrepreneurs that the horticulture sector is ripe for digital

disruption. Supporting the livelihoods of approximately 25% of the world population and making up a recommended 50% of your diet by volume, fruits and vegetables are essential for everyone’s health. Nevertheless, farmers, wholesalers, and retailers are limited in terms of data collection, an important driver of the sector’s inefficiencies because “we cannot improve what we do not measure. ”

However, this is bound to change, as we’ve seen in other industries that have been transformed by big data, such as finance, banking, communications, entertainment, and education. Hence, for entrepreneurs that want to make an impact and play an active role in the renaissance of a vital yet traditional industry, now is the time to act!

How do you envision scaling your company’s operations and offerings in 2022 and beyond?

For the foreseeable future, we will scale our operations and offerings by achieving the following:

1. Collaborating with talented, creative, and passionate individuals , whether they are part of our internal or external operations. We realized that these are vital ingredients for disruption

and success, hence it is essential to invest in individuals that have these qualities if we want to participate in the renaissance of the horticulture sector.

For example, our team is composed of diverse backgrounds from 10+ different countries spanning Europe, North and Central America. This diversity contributes to our creative disruption, helping us to connect with and understand stakeholders in a global industry.

2. Building a community of Consentians who share a common vision to bring circularity to the linear food supply chain, thereby improving the traceability, transparency, and accountability of all actors from farm-to-fork.

In this way, we foresee a fresh produce sector that is not responsible for a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions, millions of tons of water waste and food waste that accounts for half of all food produced.

Consentio will provide the foundations for this community by bringing together producers, wholesalers, retailers, social media influencers, and government actors to understand and address the needs of all stakeholders in the fresh produce industry.

3. Developing a product that addresses the specific needs of the fresh produce sector. This is achieved by maintaining an agile approach to software development, whereby our marketing, sales and engineering teams work dynamically with our users to address their specific needs and respond to the industry’s future challenges.

Surprising Heah Benets of Gardeningand Planting

Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished. —Lao Tzu . Nowadays, individuals are inclined toward achieving quick results with little or no effort. It adds stress to their lives. To find comfort in this, people use their digital devices excessively, leading to disorientation from feeling like a human.

Spending some part of your daily life in the company of nature could help you rediscover the bond of being one with nature. The modern lifestyle has been fast-paced and digitally demanding. In such a scenario, finding time to go to nature can feel like a "not-so-interesting" activity compared to scrolling on social media platforms.

How to Get Closer to Nature?

If your lifestyle does not provide you with options to be closer to trees, farms, or parks, then you could try exploring the options to bring nature to you. Gardening and planting are some of the most effective ways nature can be at your service and vice versa. Gardening and planting are being done in today's modern society's apartments, flats, and bungalows as a mindfulness activity. These small measures add value to the overall pleasantness of the home, to your mood, and the surroundings.

There are a vast number of benefits from gardening and planting for you and your family's health. Among these, we have listed the top five most surprising health benefits that may inspire you to start gardening and planting right away.

Nature Therapy

Boosts the Mood

Every now and then, people like to take a break from their daily routine and do something else which is entertaining and relaxing that boosts their mood. Gardening or planting can help you achieve all these benefits. Moreover, gardening could prove to be therapeutic for you. It is an effective way to release serotonin and endorphins, the hormones that are responsible for making people happy and content with the work they have performed.

Being close to nature's elements would always make you feel pleased. The mood-lifting effect of gardening can give you a new zeal towards accomplishing your day's goals with a fresh mindset.

Lowers Blood Pressure Naturally

Hypertension, or high blood pressure, is an escalating concern around the world. According to the statistics of the World Health Organization (WHO), 1.28 billion adults aged between 30 and 79 years have a high blood pressure problem. To avoid the risk of high blood pressure issues in your life naturally, gardening could be explored. It introduces you to the open-air environment or space. It essentially improves your heart's health by making you feel

fresh and breathing out the day's accumulated stress and worries. The sense of company and comfort that can be felt around the plants can help you forget your worries, leading to normalizing blood pressure.

Improves the Quality of Daily Life

Gardening is engaging work. It demands intense and concentrated effort. The exercise of gardening may prove to be beneficial for you in working your overall body in an open-air environment. It could make you feel like you have just come out of the gym.

The hard work of the day can improve your sleep and your overall bone strength, which can assist in maintaining a healthy weight without going to the gym. In essence, it enhances the general quality of your daily life.

Can Improve your Memory

Although gardening and planting are age-old practices, they have now been adapted as a modern profession, too, due to the demand they place on physical and mental memory. One needs to remember minor to major activities, such as

watering, fertilizing, eliminating weeds, trimming excessive grass, and so on, all the time.

When you take responsibility for doing these activities by yourself, you develop the habit of remembering all these tasks in your daily, monthly, and yearly schedules. You involuntarily work on your memory too, which may prove to be a great capability the older and wiser you become in the process.

Fresh and Healthy Food

Growing vegetables and fruits is a laborious task, and at first, you may feel only farmers can do it. When you give it a try in whatever space is available around your house to grow your fresh vegetables, it may surprise you how satisfying the experience can be.

You can begin by planting one or two vegetables in your house's backyard, and within a few weeks, you will be able to taste the fruits of your labor. You and your family will be able to enjoy a delicious farm-to-table experience.

Conclusion

The closer you are to nature, the more you will feel like you are yourself. It is necessary for every individual in this expanding digital age, filled with the urge to stay connected to their devices 24/7, to rediscover the feel of nature. Giving 30-40 minutes each day to gardening and planting activities can make you realize the essence of being grounded and yet prospering, which is what nature does all day, all the time.

- Vishal Golekar

Pixofarm

Farid Edrisian Co-Founder and CEO

Hamed Bastani Co-Founder and CTO

With the help of technology, nearly every sector is improving its productivity. The agriculture sector also has, over the years, included various technologies from planting to harvesting processes to optimize harvest. In horticulture, however, there were not any concurrent technology solutions to monitor fruit growth, count fruits, measure the overall fruit produce, and estimate essential details like weather and soil conditions.

What if you could do all the planning and measurement of your orchard with the help of your smartphone? Wouldn't it be super convenient? The good news is that now it has been made possible by the digital and AI-based horticulture solution company, Pixofarm. With the help of photos of fruits and trees submitted by fruit growers, the AI tools of the application can perform various analyses on them.

Pixofarm helps in optimizing the harvest, using resources efficiently, and getting the most out of the orchards by providing reliable yield monitoring and forecast data. Pixofarm, which was launched in 2019, has already been in high demand across the globe. It has clients in 20-plus nations.

In an interview with Insights Success, the Co-founders of Pixofarm, Farid Edrisian, CEO, and Dr. Hamed Bastani – CTO, spoke about how their digital solution for horticulture is helping fruit growers optimize operations in orchards.

Please brief our audience about your company, its USPs, and how it is positioned as a leading name in the horticulture sector.

Pixofarm is a digital and AI-based solution that empowers fruit producers worldwide to optimize their harvest, use resources efficiently, and get the most out of their orchards by providing reliable yield monitoring and forecast data.

The prerequisite is smartphone photos of fruits as well as fruit trees. Precise data about one's own orchard also serves as a basis. Based on the orchard's location, Pixofarm includes weather and satellite data in its calculations in order to provide accurate results. This allows users to make informed decisions and optimize processes such as logistics, packaging, and distribution with Zero-Hardware investment.

By having this information weeks in advance, producers can improve their yield, choose the right market and negotiate better prices for their production. The advantage

,, ,

The advantage of the technology and possibilities that Pixofarm brings is best relected in the fact that we have customers in 20+ countries across the world.

of the technology and possibilities that Pixofarm brings is best reflected in the fact that we have customers in 20+ countries across the world.

We have won several international awards like the Interpoma Startup Award in 2020, the Global Startup Awards for Best Newcomer 2020 in CEE as well as the Best Practical Solution for the Agrifood Sector in 2020 at the Startup Europe Smart Agrifood Summit.

As of today, Pixofarm can be used on apples, pears, and citrus varieties. There are many already existing solutions for extensive agriculture and farming, but not that much for horticulture. This is the gap Pixofarm is filling.

Being experienced leaders, share with us your opinion on what impact has the adoption of AI and machine learning technologies had on the horticulture sector and what more could be expected in the future?

AI and machine learning support fruit growers in their decision-making process. Experience and expertise are two very important elements in agriculture. Fruit growers need to know their orchards in order to react properly to the needs of their crops and soil.

In addition, climate change and more demanding market requirements make it more difficult to lean on experiences from the past and having optimized processes and fruit quality becomes crucial to be successful in the market.

In this context, precision agriculture tools like Pixofarm help us not only in keeping an eye on each aspect of a

farm's management and potential outcomes but also in improving the agronomic impact of farmers on their crops, better identifying each crucial requirement.

Considering the current pandemic, what initial challenges did you face, and how did you drive your company to sustain operations while ensuring the safety of your employees at the same time?

As our service is a digital solution that does not require human contact, we were spared the constraints of the pandemic in this sense. However, there were other challenges that came our way.

Since fruit growing is based on a lot of experience and indepth knowledge, building trust with customers is very

important. Before the pandemic, these customer meetings were often held in person. As that was no longer possible, other doors have opened.

In addition to digital meetings, we now have a monthly webinar where we present the latest trends in horticulture and our solutions. Nevertheless, we are very much looking forward to being able to devote more time to direct personal contact at trade fairs and meetings again.

Besides the impact on our daily business, there were also changes in the way we work as a team. Since Pixofarm was still very young when the pandemic first hit, we were able to adapt fast to the rapid changes that occurred. The employees can work remotely when the situation demands it or when they feel more comfortable during this challenging period.

Additionally, new approaches and channels to digital communication have been found to ensure effective digital communication and to keep the team spirit high. Through our agile and flexible way of working, we have improved many aspects of the work over the last two years and will continue to do so in the future.

What would be your advice to budding entrepreneurs who aspire to venture into the horticulture space?

Think out of the box with your ideas and talk to growers personally to get a better perspective on the actual challenges they face on a day-to-day basis. You have to be market-driven in order to survive and should focus on a customer-centric strategy.

How do you envision scaling your company's operations and offerings in 2022 and beyond?

Our goal is to eventually be the world's #1 fruit yield estimation tool. We want to become an enabling platform and expand our offerings across the fruit production value chain. For example, we are now launching a post-harvest solution to measure fruits in harvest bins through the sole use of a phone.

We are also continuously working on expanding your fruit portfolio. In addition to apple, pears, and citrus, other fruits are planned for 2022. And of course, we want to expand to many more countries. As a 100% digital solution, any grower can just download the app and start getting the benefits.

The Prime Movers

The idea was born in 2019 when Pixofarm Co-Founders Farid Edrisian and Hamed Bastani recognized the need for digitalization in Horticulture, which moved them to lay the foundation for the development of a smart solution for fruit growing.

Elaborating on how they came up with the idea of Pixofarm, Mr. Farid Edrisian said that "Speciically, we became aware of the great importance of harvest monitoring in the value chain of fruit production. We realized that this process is currently mainly manual, and alternative solutions are either not precise enough or very expensive. During the research, our mission quickly became clear: we want to enable fruit growers around the world to optimize their harvest results, work resourceeficiently and get the most out of their farmland."

"The development of the Pixofarm app progressed rapidly. The company was founded in 2019 in Vienna/Austria, and already in the irst year, numerous pilot customers were acquired all around the globe. Additionally, working directly with fruit producers and associations has helped us a lot. We get valuable insights from them and beneit from decades of experience, which allows us to tailor our product to their individual needs. We are very happy that fruit growers around the world are ready for innovation on their farms and hope to accompany many more of them on their journey," Dr. Hamed Bastani added.

Agood food grower knows that a healthy seed will sprout a healthy seedling. And a healthy seedling will grow into the healthiest tree, with utmost care and the most proper nourishment. Growing a healthy tree, which will produce food in abundance, is a slow process but the best food growers in the world know a technique that will speed up the process while also enhancing the quality of the seedling and the ultimate plant. In it, the inverted pyramid cell planter flats are used to grow the world's healthiest transplants.

And that is exactly what Speedling Incorporated is doing at their eight food-growing nurseries across America. The Speedling cell design allows for the production of consistently high-quality transplants that could be massproduced for seeded vegetables, ornamentals, and propagated vegetative products.

In an interview to Insights Success, for its latest edition of Top 10 GreenHouse Growers Revolutionizing Horticulture Sector, the company's President and CEO, Greg Davis, said, "In the inverted pyramid technology, the shape of the trays reduces production costs for farmers, by improving survivability and speed to harvest."

He added, "The open bottom design allows for air pruning of the taproot, creating strong secondary roots. The overall structure of the roots permits greater capacity to forage for nutrients and easy extractions, with limited damage during transfer."

The interview (given along with Jennifer Bozicevich, West Coast Division Manager, and Brandon Palmer, National Sales and Logistics Manager) in detail is produced below.

Please brief our audience about Speedling Inc., its USPs, and how it is positioned as a leading name in the horticulture sector.

Feeding the world and making it a more beautiful place since 1968, Speedling helps local farmers grow the world's food and flowers. Primarily a young plant producer, Speedling invented the young plant industry and helping growers start Speedling Strong remains our purpose. With locations in FL, GA, TX, and CA, Speedling is a national leader in the largest plant markets in the world.

Speedling measures its success by the success of its customers. We are farmers serving farmers, turning seed and cuttings into strong young plants ready for their next home, be that a south Florida Watermelon field, a Central

Valley California Tomato field, a state-of-the-art Geranium greenhouse, or your local independent garden center. We partner with the largest growers in the world and the smallest in your community, no matter your size; we measure our success by yours.

Being an experienced leader, share with us your opinion on what impact has the adoption of AI and machine learning technologies had on the horticulture sector and what more could be expected in the future?

Growing billions of young plants for over 50 years, Speedling has developed recipes and techniques to produce almost every plant the Good Lord created. Like people, a plant is most vulnerable in its youngest 'seedling' state, and our job is to nurture your plants during the riskiest time of its life when the margin of error is smallest.

To do this well, we must utilize every possible tool and all available information. At this stage, anticipation, and foresight are critical, and while a computer can't replace the passion of a person, it can track massive amounts of data without forgetting the smallest detail.

We track every input and each outcome, and with this data bank, we continually dial in our processes to reduce risk, increase quality, and manage costs. With a living, evolving product, we know, our processes must remain living and evolving, and data helps us anticipate the possibility of different outcomes under different conditions.

By converting data into information, we generate knowledge that helps us continually improve the probability of the desired outcome. Plants aren't widgets, they can't be made by a machine, but machines can certainly help our people make better plants.

Primarily a young plant producer, Speedling invented the young plant industry.

Top 10 GreenHouse Growers Revolutionizing Horticulture Sector

Greg-Davis CEO-President Greg-Davis CEO-President

be an exact copy of the one before and after it, we utilize multiple technologies; however, the only way to navigate real-world variables with new diseases and old challenges is with a professional team of people who absolutely don't accept failure.

The best plants demand the best people, and the Speedling team is the best in the world. We understand the challenge, we've made the investments, and we are committed to continuous research methods and materials to provide better solutions to tomorrow's needs.

Considering the current pandemic, what initial challenges did you face, and how did you drive Speedling Inc. to sustain operations while ensuring the safety of your employees at the same time?

Even with a mix of fifty-year-old proven processes and cutting-edge technology, it is the people that make Speedling great, so keeping our team safe is paramount. Safety and security work in tandem, it is impossible to avoid all risks and remain secure, so our approach was and is to reduce total risk. That means weighing options and making the best possible choices; after considerable research, we decided that shutting down was worse than COVID-19.

Our teams, at each farm, daily make the decisions and do the work that our customers depend on. So, staying home meant shutting down, which meant dead plants, which would threaten the livelihood of our customers and our families, and that was simply not acceptable.

did.

We did reduce in-person meetings, we wore masks inside, and we had a zero-tolerance policy for coming to work sick. Despite all the public fearmongering, I was very proud that our teams didn't panic; they made the best decision for the team and for our communities.

What would be your advice to budding entrepreneurs who aspire to venture into the horticulture space?

All business is basic, people, process, and product with a good measure of sales, logistics, and purpose. Horticulture is simply great people producing essential products.

Horticulture is simply great people producing essential products.

Jennifer Bozicevich West Coast Division Manager

Jennifer Bozicevich, Coast Division Manager

'Mother Nature' and a living product keep it interesting. Our team is equally artist, scientist, and efficiency fanatics supported by finance and HR, so, no matter your specific strength, almost certainly, you can apply it in horticulture.

How do you envision scaling Speedling's operations and offerings in 2022 and beyond?

Speedling has been around a long time. We started small; we grew big. For many years, we focused on semi-loads and have long avoided retail. However, the shutdowns have shown us the importance of delivering individual plants to individuals. While we remain wholesale growers, we have been reminded of the joy of new gardeners growing a few plants for fun.

We know better than to try to be everything to everyone, and we know that we can accomplish anything with the right partners who have complementary strengths. Brandon found us two up-and-coming internet marketing companies, one focused on Vegetables and one on Ornamentals. These two organizations have grown far more quickly because of COVID-19, and in only two years, both have become significant new partnerships.

At the same time, we saw the supply/demand imbalance in foliage and, this time, partnered with more established companies who were great at marketing to box stores to quickly become a significant supplier of quality foliage.

We are excited by B2C and foliage and are expanding the production of these lines into Texas and California in 2022. The Speedling team will continue to mix national strategies with local strengths, to meet the needs of our diverse customer base and overcome every challenge.

The Thoughtful Trio

Greg Davis has led Speedling as President and CEO since 2008. Like Speedling, he was born on a Florida farm and has spent his career helping farmers throughout the US. He started in vegetable seed sales, later in production and brokerage of bonsai and foliage.

His focus at Speedling has been on driving what was historically a cottage industry to be more professional and predictable, implementing multiple improvements utilizing cutting-edge technology. His joy comes from seeing good people become great, as they accomplish more than they realize they were capable of.

Jennifer Bozicevich has spent 25 years in greenhouse and nursery production, leading teams at multiple CA Nurseries to implement the latest technology. Like Speedling, she recognizes the value of building the best production model then using those tools across all product lines.

She has spent many years in all the major sectors of the industry (vegetable transplants, ornamental plugs, vegetative lines, finished floral for fresh market, etc.)

Jennifer has been able to develop business in cross-over product lines such as Organic Herb Bowls. Each sector has its own strengths; the beauty of Speedling is its ability to bring all these practices to bear for field growers, for greenhouse growers, and even for big box stores.

Brandon Palmer started at Speedling dispatching deliveries, his can-do attitude and focus on progress, although any obstacle has led to his current position overseeing all sales and customer service. Brandon manages such a wide range of products and customers by staying rooted in the knowledge that the tools and techniques are only as good as the team making it happen.

He has developed plant lovers from outside the industry into excellent sales and customer service teammates by keeping their focus on the customers. He has driven Speedling's foray into B2B and foliage by proving that excellent quality, service, and logistics make happy customers regardless of the size of the crop.

How

High-tech are Quickly Becoming the Future of Greenhouse Agriculture

The population of the world is rising exponentially. United Nations reports have estimated it to be above 9.5 billion by 2050. Fulfilling the basic food needs of this large population is the top priority for nations. It is the greatest necessity that needs to be focused on to maintain global harmony.

To meet the ever-rising food demand, naturally, the quality and quantity of agricultural production need to be improved on a vast scale worldwide. Continuing with traditional farming methods, where we depend on limited natural resources and weather conditions, could make it difficult to achieve the scale of agricultural production.

Issues such as global warming, water scarcity, limited land availability, and poor-quality produce are already gaining ground in the agriculture sector, leading to price inflation in the consumer markets. If these issues are not dealt with in time, then it might lead to global unrest.

High-Tech Greenhouse Farming is the Solution

The solution to the above problem is high-tech greenhouse farming. Greenhouse technology provides ideal environmental conditions for plants or crops, along with automation options. It can substantially increase the agricultural production rate and quality.

The technology-backed greenhouse farming method can create a controlled environment to grow the crops. Numerous techniques in modern-day greenhouse farming

have proved their effectiveness in cultivating high-yield crops in an artificial environment.

Many advanced technologies are being introduced into greenhouse farming to maximize production with the use of limited resources. Applying remote farming technology, the greenhouse farms could be monitored from thousands of miles away, from the planting stage to harvest. In addition, technology allows for the intelligent and timely use of the available resources.

The following are the benefits of high-tech greenhouse farming that are effectively transforming today's agriculture:

Smart Use of Limited Land

Due to rapid urbanization, the land area available for agriculture is getting smaller and smaller every day. Smartly utilizing the available land is crucial for today's farming. Greenhouse farming can be applied to take advantage of the limited land and gain maximum outcomes. Greenhouse farming allows farmers to use land in the most intelligent ways. Even though the land is limited, you can get the most out of it by using various tried-and-tested fertilizers and technologies.

Effective Water Utilization

The open-air agriculture irrigation method is a highly laborintensive and vague process that can cause suboptimal

High-tech Greenhouse

yields or plant disease. Water availability is one of the crucial factors in raising production quality and quantity. The traditional agricultural irrigation method causes a lot of wastage of water.

The greenhouse environment enables farmers to use available water in intelligent ways. Using A.I. irrigation techniques, you can automate the irrigation process. An A.I. application can be applied to measure the water present in the soil. It can detect small-scale deviations in soil moisture and correct them instantly.

Active Pest and Disease Control

Open agricultural fields are susceptible to various pest and plant disease attacks. It can cause lots of damage to the crop. Though various pesticides can be used for prevention, by the time the prevention measure starts, significant damage might already have been done.

Using various methods, you can control the atmosphere within the greenhouse, which allows you to keep the pest from attacking the crop at a very early stage. Employing technology to monitor and analyze the crop can alert you quickly if there is a danger of pest damage, and according to technology input, preventive steps can be taken to keep them away.

Protection Against Extreme Weather Conditions

Due to global warming, weather conditions today everywhere in the world are unpredictable. Extreme temperatures, excessive rainfall, or wind can cause losses in the traditional agriculture field, but in the greenhouse, using temperature control technology, the ideal atmospheric conditions for the desired crop production can be achieved.

Producing High Yield

Using today's advanced agriculture technologies, you can cultivate a hundred acres' worth of crops within a few acres of greenhouse farming. When compared to traditional agricultural methods, it significantly facilitates the recovery of your investment costs while also earning you multi-fold profits.

Nutritionally Rich Crop Production

The world needs more nutritious food than ever before. The crop produced in a greenhouse-maintained environment can produce highly nutritious grains. The customized supply of

fertilizers and natural and artificial light can concentrate nutrients for every plant, resulting in nutritionally rich crop production.

Locally Produced Fresh Food

The greenhouse method can be applied everywhere globally, through which the desired crop can be produced regardless of the local weather conditions. It is a significant way to meet the local demand for fresh produce, especially vegetables and fruits.

Conclusion

By combining technology with modern agriculture in a greenhouse farming environment, a high yield of fresh harvest can be achieved. The greenhouse is already proving to be a meaningful solution to the demands of the present and future populations. Farmers who are technologically enabled can better use their lands to increase profits while also meeting nutritional food requirements locally and globally.

- Vishal Golekar

Managing change to Smoothen Technology Transition

By Stefanie Rollins: Chief Operating Ofcer for Synergy Logistics - provider of the award-winning, cloud-based SnapFull warehouse management system (WMS) suite

Stefanie Rollins COO

massive shift to digital solutions is now well

A underway in supply chain and logistics. But, as more companies make the move from manual to automated processes, do we risk leaving our employees behind?

Bosses need to prepare their staff accordingly to embrace new technology as an opportunity, rather than perceive it as a threat. It takes both clear communication and a willingness to learn – and especially around the cultural shift to slick, best-of-breed WMS from an onerous and manual paper-based system.

At SnapFulfil, we've supported many clients in the journey away from paper-based warehouse management. Implementing the operational improvements is often the most straightforward element of the transition to a WMS, but bringing people along with you is more nuanced. Warehouse operatives will be used to a certain way of working and will need to truly understand the benefit of change and feel fully supported throughout the journey.

Staff fed up with manual tasks can quickly get excited about the time and labour-saving efficiencies of digital, but then fearful about the associated training and learning of new skills. But this is a pattern that is present in every aspect of life. People need time to process things, internalise matters and come to accept them.

One of our clients summed up the challenge perfectly, suggesting that introducing a warehouse operative to a tier 1 WMS without the proper support is: "like putting people used to driving a Ford Fiesta into an F1 car and expecting them to figure it out!" So it pays to plan ahead and create internal comms and strategies to win the hearts and minds of managers and operators who cling to the old and established (but highly inefficient) ways and resist change.

Any change management plan worth its salt must identify and communicate the obvious benefits in a meaningful way, so for me, the following five established fundamentals go a long way toward achieving buy-in from your employees:

Formalise what's about to happen – Start by developing a list of actions you have to take before implementing the WMS, including all the digital advancements, new dashboards and other systematic procedures you'll need to learn.

Talk to your teams and all of them - Customer Service, Warehouse, Finance, IT, etc. They will all have their own

ideas where the existing problems are – are your employees empowered to be confident to raise their hand if something isn't working? Then define the change itself for all levels of staff to build a clear picture of the training and pre-emptive support required to get everyone on the same page.

Determine what to measure and how - state your goals clearly and also break them down relative to change management. How quickly do you want teams to start using the new system? What measurements are required after you implement a phase of the project? How can you ascertain if someone is using the software correctly?

Narrowing each big goal into a small measurable piece for each position helps you ensure that you've thought about the WMS holistically and are ready for the knock-on effects it may have. For example, more efficient workers mean inventory and accuracy both improve, with less time required to fix miss-picks and address performance issues, creating more opportunities to explore further cost-saving improvements.

About the author

Stefanie Rollins is COO for WMS technology innovator, SnapFulfil, and has a remit for North America, as well as UK & Europe. She has held that posion since January 2019, having previously been VP/Head of Support Services.

Her passions are mentoring, coaching, plus problemsolving and Stefanie is currently moulding the future of Operaons for SnapFulfil and its clients - focusing on connuous improvement for all. In her 20+ years at SnapFulfil, Stefanie has also headed up the company's Support Services, Quality Assurance and Customer Success teams, with extra responsibility for developing the Implementaons offering in keeping with a leading supply chain execuon soluons specialist. Stefanie has addionally aained Level 5 in the ILM Award for Leadership and Management.

Prioritise help and support - this is a big one for me. Some of your team may never have used a computer before, so the task could be daunting for them. They will still have experience though - make sure they know that is just as important. Bring your team along the journey with you; they will have validconcerns and questions along the way, so providing a feedback tool is essential. You'll also need to communicate that feedback to everyone involved. For example, consider setting up a series of online informational sessions, or lunch and learns – to build an open line of communication between management and your pick, pack and ship teams.

Consider the skills that your current employees have –they might not be where you expect. For example, gamers are amongst some of the brightest warehouse staff I know, they tend to have a natural aptitude for problem-solving, testing, thinking outside of the box and having the ability to concentrate on many things for long periods of time. Also think about generational differences as each one has something unique to add to the process, whether it be considered thinking, experience, confidence, multi-tasking, extended focus time. There is a good chance each one of these skills can help you bring together the whole you need to make your WMS change easier.

Promote training and professional development – help employees develop new skill sets to manage these more advanced WMS solutions. Providing training sessions is a great way to show you're investing in people as well as technology and will help increase employee satisfaction and performance, as well as preparing them for their new roles. In short, make it easy for your staff to ask for help and you've got the best chance of getting ahead of any implementation and adoption issues. This along with proper planning, communication and investment will help speed your warehouse operations – and your employees – into this here-to-stay and rewarding age of digital fulfilment.

What the client says This view is echoed by a leading global distribution group providing customised solutions to B2B customers across 30 + countries. They needed a more systematic and time/cost-effective WMS approach for the business - and quickly found SnapFulfil provides visibility of information, ease of integration and user-friendliness, plus tried and tested processes that facilitate structured change.

Their Operations Director said: "There's always resistance to any transition and in my experience, a feeling of 'teach and preach' and I'll forget, but involve me and I'll learn – so

before go live it was essential to familiarise and acclimatise our staff.

With SnapFulfil's help, we created a mini-warehouse scenario (5,000 sq. ft) with goods-in, put away, despatch, location and replenishment elements, so that all operatives were able to practice and repeat based on real orders rather than any classroom approach.

Culturally it was very important, because with 15 years on average in the job, there was certainly fear, trepidation and the 'if it isn't broke don't fix it' attitude. But it was ineffective and very admin heavy, so we also actioned three separate sessions per worker to cross-train and multi-skill them and provide extra resilience to the workforce.

"It worked very well and the buy-in was complete because they all felt part of the journey and in tandem with SnapFulfil's approach to the partnership it bred a culture of continuous improvement. We're now developing a productivity tracker for use in other parts of the company and preparing to roll out the cloud-based software solution across other sites.”

So, digital transformation is clearly not just an IT decision and it pays to involve and consult your staff every step of the way. Dealing in real-time data is also about facts, rather than tribal knowledge, and a properly utilised WMS brings discipline, consistency and uniform processes to your business.

Only then will you know where the true costs lie and the best improvement levers to push.

The Future Farm Facilitating Affordable Premium Vegetables

Urban agriculture has been proved in research and practice over the last 20 years to help mitigate the consequences of climate change while also increasing the urban quality of life.

Cities are once again becoming areas for growing food since people nowadays prefer to live in green and sustainable city centers that can provide fresh, locally produced food. It's a new world and this new world demands modern farming solutions. Enter the Indonesia-based agritech start-up – Tunas Farm .

With a goal to urbanize farming to create sustainable food production in cities, Tunas Farm leverages idle assets and turns them into food production using IoT and precision farming methods. The company believes that cities should be able to produce their own food due to population problems, urbanization, and other aspects such as climate change and natural disasters that can affect the food supply.

With such a magnificent vision, Tunas Farm is on a mission to change farming as we know it. We, at Insights Success magazine, are honored to present you with an interview that we conducted with the CEO of Tunas Farm - Widya Surya Prayoga.

Widya shared with us the journey of this ambitious venture and how the leadership team—which includes Rudwiky Okta Putra (CTO), Jeremia Michael (CCO), and Topaz Kumoro (COO)— plan to scale the agritech business in Indonesia and the world.

Below is an excerpt of that interview:

Please brief our audience about your company, its USPs, and how it is positioned as a leading name in the horticulture sector.

Tunas Farm is an urban-focused agritech startup with our tagline "your local future farm" meaning we are the solution for not only food but also healthy and hygienic food straight from our farms to consumers' doorsteps.

Our mission focuses on three main issues, namely Production Cost, Quality, and Selling Price. In Indonesia, most of the low-priced vegetables are of poor quality (grade 4), use soil, and sustain heavy damage. Other vegetables entail hydroponic vegetables (class 1), but their price is high. The problem at large is that both types of vegetables depend on the weather. Both methods are unsustainable and unpredictable.

That's where we come in. With low production costs, premium quality, and affordable prices, we aim at providing affordable premium vegetables

Tunas Farm is the first indoor vertical farm in Indonesia and we have a mission to present our indoor facilities in all cities in Indonesia and have a positive impact on the sustainability of agriculture in Indonesia.

Not only that, but we also position ourselves as a partner for universities to train students to get directly involved in the real work environment in modern agriculture, because we were very difficult to find indoor farming experts when we first started Tunas Farm. With this step, we hope to become a leader in the modern agricultural industry in Indonesia.

Please tell our readers about yourself and the leadership team at Tunas Farm. Also enlighten us about your professional journeys, and how they have contributed towards the company's success.

I, Widya Surya Prayoga (CEO) , started my career with an advertising agency as an IT professional, and in 2019, met Rudwiky Okta Putra (CTO) who developed a tool to obtain data in the field for land-use

agriculture. Rudwiky specializes in Human-Computer Interaction and software engineering. He is very proficient in IoT and automation. In late 2019, we discovered a new method of farming called the Indoor Vertical Farming in the USA (Aero Farm).

So, we decided to build our prototype house kit with the same methods and devices (sensors, automation) we got the first buyer for that house kit. Long story short, there are VCs who are interested in our idea and help us build Tunas Farm. Now we have another Cofounder, Jeremia Michael as our CCO , an experienced founder as well as a hustler in our team who will assist us in business development and commercial aspects.

In 2021, we managed to build two other facilities in Malang city and Pontianak city with the same concept and each facility can produce around 2 210kg/m area a month with only 100m facilities.

We hope that our facilities will have an impact on the community to bring solutions for sustainable agriculture. For now, with our respective expertise, we feel that we are complete enough as a small team ready to open the market and start a new leap. Of course, as our company grows, we will always look for the best talents in Indonesia to jointly develop in terms of science for planting plants and developing the business itself.

Being an experienced leader, share with us your opinion on what impact has the adoption of AI and machine learning technologies had on the horticulture sector and what more could be expected in the future?

In my opinion, AI and Machine Learning can help process the data that has been collected and then turn it into

Greenhouse Growers Revolutionizing Horticulture Sector

With low production costs, premium quality, and affordable prices, we aim at providing affordable premium vegetables.

Top

knowledge, so that we as industry players, especially in agriculture, can use that to make practical and strategic decisions in our daily business. They can do demand forecasting, weather forecasting (if planting in the open), or the data can increase productivity and quality of agricultural products such as AI which is used for irrigation systems.

The system can study a set of data that is tested on a plant with a variety of certain variables so that it can produce good output in providing nutrition to plants or at certain times of watering and can even adjust the specifications and harvest schedule of a plant.

In the future, agriculture may have to join the Blockchain or crypto ecosystem where agriculture becomes a reliable use case and also a very promising underlying. However, it all needs to start from the current years, preparing data from upstream to downstream, supply-chain, and also downstream level for distribution. So, when the time comes, agriculture will become a very sexy essential industry.

Considering the current pandemic, what initial challenges did you face and how did you drive your company to sustain operations while ensuring the safety of your employees at the same time?

Back in July 2020, we were running our company in the midst of the pandemic, finished our first facility, and start selling the products in early 2021. Consumers' behaviors have changed in this period. They prefer buying online via a website, eCommerce, and WhatsApp.

During the pandemic, we found online buying preferences rise increasing, especially in ride-hailing services like Grab and Gojek. We do partnerships with Grab and Gojek, become their

merchant in the Mart platform to grab that moment, and alongside we still have in-house couriers to drop buyers' orders directly.

As we use the automation system to monitor, the head growers can work remotely from home, non-essential workers in production also work from home. So, we only use a maximum of two workers in our facility and we check their health regularly. Their job is to monitor the seedling and harvest cycle and serve the orders for customers.

What would be your advice to the budding entrepreneurs who aspire to venture into the horticulture space?

My advice for entrepreneurs in agriculture is to find the pain point in your area and tackle it with technology to have scalability, so your business model can easily be able to replicate. Perhaps the problem in every country is different, but there's always a gap. Research the market, find the problems because there's an opportunity behind it.

Like for us, in Indonesia, the pain point is at the upstream level. Thus, we create sustainable farming because our number of farmers is decreasing year by year due to urbanization. This impact on farmland decreases around 120.000 ha per year because there's no next generation to continue farming activity anymore.

Farmer is still one of the lowest-paid laborers in Indonesia. So, with that data, we try to solve food security on an upstream level with technology. At the downstream levels, Indonesia has great players like SayurBox, Tanihub, Astronauts, etc, so we help them grow to solve the supply-chain problem. We help them secure the supply with sustainable farming.

How do you envision scaling your company's operations and offerings in 2022 and beyond?

We are targeting to establish 30 facilities in the next 3 years in various cities throughout Indonesia to serve and balance the demand for vegetables and soft fruits. On the other hand, we will also partner as much as possible with companies in the field of fresh supply-chain and logistics to reach more customers who need fresh and healthy vegetables.

Of course, we cannot stand alone with our strength. We also invite investors who are interested in the SDG program to develop indoor agriculture in Indonesia and grow together to become part of the modern agricultural ecosystem in Indonesia.

Give us a few testimonials of your clients/customers that accurately highlight your organization's position in the market.

Our customers, especially the F&B industry, are very satisfied with the solutions we provide to them, especially on the issue of vegetable supply consistency and quality. In matters of pricing, we may not be the cheapest, but we provide added value and guarantee to consumers from our service level to be able to support their businesses growth. For direct customers such as households, our products are considered to have advantages because our vegetables have very few leaves that are wasted due to damage and pests, such as those experienced by open farming or greenhouses. So customers feel benefited because there is almost no waste.