Signify lights up the largest plant factory to provide vegetables for airline catering

On February 14, foreign media reported that Bustanica, the world's largest hydroponic vertical plant factory, opened in Dubai in July last year. Signify provided corresponding plant lighting products to help the factory provide large amounts of spinach, kale, lettuce and other vegetables for airline catering. Recently, Signify released the latest photos of the Bustanica factory, showing the current operation of the vertical farm.

Information shows that Bustanica is a fully indoor artificial lighting vertical farm located next to Dubai Al Maktoum International Airport. It has a planting area of ​​30,000 square meters, including 6 planting racks, covering an area of ​​about 50 × 150 meters, and a building height of about 18 meters. It is known as the indoor plant factory with the largest planting area. The factory started operations in July last year and can produce about 1 million kilograms of green leafy vegetables annually.

The plant factory is operated by Emirates Crop One, a joint venture between Dubai-based Emirates Catering and vertical farming company Crop One.

It is reported that Emirates Catering currently provides catering services to 100 airlines, including Emirates, and needs to provide approximately 200,000 meals every day. In addition to supplying to airlines, it also needs to provide meal services to restaurants and lounges at Al Maktoum International Airport and Dubai International Airport, as well as private aircraft and events. The Bustanica plant factory provides green leafy vegetable food to meet the large daily demand for aviation catering services.

Emirates Airline Catering Company stated that it currently has 27 plant factories. Through correct environmental control and lighting formulas, any green leafy vegetables needed can be grown in the most efficient and effective way.

Although the Bustanica plant factory lit by Signify is in normal operation, the LED plant lighting industry, on the other hand, is slowing down due to declining end demand. Foreign media pointed out that, like some other lighting and LED suppliers, the growth of Signify's plant lighting business is declining.

Previously, Signify had a positive and optimistic attitude towards the plant lighting market in the first half of 2022. Signify pointed out in its first quarter financial report of 2022 that the strong performance of the plant lighting business in the United States drove the sales of its digital solutions business to increase by nearly 24% in nominal terms.

In the 2022 semi-annual report, Signify also mentioned that the plant lighting market in North America is full of driving forces, and it is expected that as the demand for medical cannabis in North America continues to grow, the sales revenue contribution of the company's plant lighting company Fluence is expected to increase in the second half of 2022.

But after the third quarter, the growth rate of the plant lighting market seems to be slowing down again.

Foreign media stated that after the end of the third quarter of 2022, Signify CEO Eric Rondolat revealed that the growth of the plant lighting business has slowed down. Although LED lighting can save a lot of energy costs, the upfront cost of LED lighting is difficult for end growers to bear.

Foreign media also mentioned that in the recent fourth quarter performance report, Signify did not mention the latest status of the plant lighting business, while Fluence, a subsidiary of Signify that focuses on plant lighting, pointed out that cannabis, as an important market for plant lighting, has weak demand.

Despite the current decline in market demand for plant lighting, Signify is still optimistic about the long-term development of plant lighting. In its latest 2022 annual report, Signify mentioned that as market segments such as smart lighting and plant lighting continue to expand, related businesses will also be an important source of income for Signify in the future.