As many of us have probably arrived home or are still recovering, the Indoor AgCon has come to an end. Hovering over the exhibition floor were 1500+ attendees, whereas 250 exhibitors came down to Vegas to showcase their products and solutions for indoor farming. This year, we've seen a lot of interesting panels coming into the program with cannabis, cultivating possibilities, planning & operations, and growers tracks on the side, filled with numerous panels that highlighted opportunities and challenges and delivered some proper discussions.
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The Babylon team caught eyes standing at the entrance of the show, highlighting their newest family member, 'the STEMgarden.'
René van Haeff with Light4Food.
With a large chunk of suppliers coming in, a lot of visitors came down to Vegas to see the latest trends at the show. Noticeable was the topic around CEA and retail, which was brought to the front in many panels. As seen in yesterday's article, CEA-grown products are becoming increasingly important to US retailers as external factors are growing, which causes a lot of supply volatility and uncertainty for both retailers and consumers. Luckily, a lot of partnerships are closed with indoor producers, mainly on the greenhouse side, and steadily in vertical farming.
Overall, exhibitors and attendees let slip that North America is most promising at this point in we're not excluding Mexico in this, in terms of greenhouse projects that keep increasing. The US greenhouse sector in Canada and the US continues to grow as new projects and acquisitions are in the pipeline. We're seeing greenhouse suppliers adding North American offices to add local presence and keep up with the speed of the market. As for the European market, it remains rather quiet, with an exception for the UK, Scandinavian, and Eastern European markets as, unfortunately, electricity prices are still causing growers to be limited in expansion.
Leafy greens of whole head lettuce? Not an issue for Sormac's latest harvesting machine, with Luuk Rutten and Roy Lemmen proudly showcasing it.
Look who posed for us with the entire team! The Pipp Horticulture and GrowGlide team looked fresh as they flaunted all their vertical- and greenhouse-growing products.
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Coming from many lighting suppliers, new projects are expected to be rolled out in vertical farming though, globally, which is a good sign. Meaning that the market might not be there yet, but many are working on their operations to either pivot business models or increase efficiency in CapEx, but we'll get there. As many panels pointed out, the investment pit might have been a bit drier than before, but retail is pushing the need for CEA to stay there in the long run. We're hopeful!
Next year's show dates are 11-12 March 2024 in Las Vegas, USA.
Now, it's your favorite time of the day: photo time!! If we haven't been able to pass by your booth and get a photo, please feel free to send it to [email protected] to have it included in the photo report.