Imagine getting freshly farmed, nutritious, impeccably safe produce at supermarkets at any time of the day. All while helping the environment. Great idea?
Farmacy HK has just made that a reality. The Cyberport community member and former incubatee recently debuted its Smart Mobile Farm at city’super, growing different kinds of herbs in-store and serving them up to consumers whenever they want.
This latest development follows Farmacy’s quest to bring decentralised mobile farming to highly urbanised cities. Since 2018, the start-up has been developing urban farming and agricultural-property technologies to close the distance between farms and consumers and reduce the environmental impact of traditional agriculture. Its 600 sq. ft. hydroponics Farm Lab in Hong Kong Cyberport has been supplying more than 50 species of herbs, micro greens, and edible flowers to Hong Kong’s restaurants, hotels, supermarkets, schools, and homes.
Consumers embrace Farmacy’s crops for their quality, nutritional value, and safety, especially since COVID-19 has increased health awareness. They also appreciate the many eco benefits and values that Farmacy’s model offers.
As Raymond Mak, Co-Founder and CEO, explained: “98% of Hong Kong’s produce are imported into our city using long-haul transportation. By reducing that, Farmacy’s produce can retain 25-50% more nutrients than packaged produce and save 70% in CO2 emissions. By meticulously controlling and optimising farming conditions, we can also save 95% more water than soil-based agriculture, skip pesticides and agrochemicals altogether, and achieve consistent yield, quality, and food safety throughout the year, regardless of the crops. We are very thankful for city’super’s support to local innovation.”
Farmacy is now planning to scale its business beyond home shores. Already growing in Bangkok, its ambitions include rolling out Smart Mobile Farms with full remote monitoring, automation, and control capabilities to supermarkets across eight markets in Asia and the Middle East, and achieving such lofty aims within the next three years. It even wants to replace traditional vegetable shelves in supermarkets with always-growing Smart Mobile Farms.
Those interested in checking out Farmacy’s Smart Mobile Farm can visit city’super Time Square store and at their Farm Lab (by appointment) at the Cyberport Entrepreneurship Centre for a fresh taste of smart city farming.
