can hydroponic farming of leafy-vegetables be profitable 20140822.pdf

Can Hydroponic Farming of Leafy-Vegetables be Profitable?

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Can Hydroponic Farming of Leafy-vegetables

be Profitable?

and

Can Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and Iceland reach

their self-sufficiency of Leafy-Vegetables with

Hydroponic Farming?

A magic to turn seeds into gold

2014-08-20

Author: Dr. Allen Lang & Peter Teng

SpeedyGreen, Inc, China

Peter Teng: email: [email protected]

Tel: +86-186-5526-9911

mailto:[email protected]


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Summary Various types of hydroponic farming factories of vegetables seem

picking up its momentum in recent years. However, most of these

hydroponic farming factories still either remain at the stage of

experimentation， or lack mass-production capability, or lack profitability

in its operation. Commercial level hydroponic farming in large scale

production has not been adopted to replace traditional soil-grown

farming.

So, in the year of 2014, is or is not possible to make an investment on

building and operating a hydroponic farming factory of leafy-vegetables

and achieve a high annual ROI? Or is there or isn’t there a commercial

hydroponic farming factory that has the Magic to turn Seeds into Gold?

Author believes the answer comes from answering following two

questions:

How to design the most-efficient and practically-operable hydroponic

vertical farming factory to make its production cost-effective? A

wrongfully-designed hydroponic farming factory of leafy-vegetables is

doomed for its failure. Under-design it without must-have features, or

over-designs it with costly features results in low efficiency in production

quantity and over-all cost. Both end up without obtaining profitability in its

operation. And reaching high efficiency and mass-production capability

is the key point of the design. Without them, the factory has no chance to

make profitability. And without making profitability, there is no chance

that Hydroponic Farming can reach to its commercial stage.

Where is the location on the globe to build and operate such factory to

achieve profitability? Even a well-designed, highly-efficient Hydroponic

Farming factory today, due to its consumption of large amount of

electricity, still requires more conditions to be met to be profitable. In

order to obtain high ROI on its operation, two major factors need to be

considered: the cost of its operation has to be low and the income of it


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has to be high. Author’s analysis results in the conclusion that both of

these two factors are location-dependent. Building and operating such

factories only on locations that these two factors are met, the high

annual ROI can be obtained. So, searching the locations on the globe to

find out where to build and operate such factories is the key point of

obtaining the high ROI.

To answer question A of the above, author offers detailed analysis in this

article on what is the design principles of achieving a highly-efficient and

mass-production-type hydroponic vertical farming factory of

leafy-vegetables. Author-designed factory is used to demonstrate the

efficiency and mass-production capability.

To answer question B of the above, author offers detailed analysis and

concluded that in order to obtain profitability, the location to build and

operate an already well-designed factories must have following

characteristics:

1. The location has to provide stable and low-cost electricity.

2. The market selling price of vegetables has to be stably-high.

And 4 locations meeting these requirements that author found are:

1. The State of Qatar in Persian Gulf

2. The State of Bahrain in Persian Gulf

3. The state of Kuwait in Persian Gulf

4. The Republic of Iceland of Nordic Europe

So, author concludes that we can make high profitability by building and

operating efficiently-designed hydroponic vertical farming factories of

leafy-vegetables in Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and Iceland. Also, by

building and operating large numbers of efficiently-designed hydroponic

vertical farming factories, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and Iceland can reach

their self-sufficiency of leafy-vegetables production.


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The design principles of an efficiently-designed hydroponic vertical farming factory of leafy-vegetables：

1) It has to perform mass-production of leafy-vegetables:

author-designed 1530 ㎡ factory, can produce at least 1 million

heads of lettuce a year. Without this kind of mass-production

capability, reaching Qatar’s self-sufficiency seems impossible. A

same-size factory that can produce less than 10% of this quantity of

vegetables will not be cost-effective to generate profitability as well

as meeting the market’s demand on vegetables quantity.

2) Its source of energy required has to be what locality can offer: the

factory should be designed to only draw on electricity, not on other

resources which the locality cannot provide. A factory that demands

large amount of fresh water, land and high-skilled labor which the

locality cannot offer is not qualified. Author-designed factory relies

heavily on the drawing of large amount of electricity but demands

very little on other sources.

3) It should utilize Hydroponic Vertical Farming: Vertical Farming

saves land-usage and makes control of the environment easier and

more cost-effective. Profitability of the factory’s operation relies on

these savings. Author-designed 1530 ㎡ factory provides

3-layer-structure on its working space, forming the storage of total of

273 seedbeds (4.3M X 1.72M) with accumulated growing space area

over 2100 ㎡. And hydroponic NFT method is used.

4) It should be designed with “Automated-Moving-Seedbeds-System”:

once we go with Vertical Farming, the multi-layer vegetables growing

space structure prohibited human-handling of any production

processes. We need an automated system to transfer the growing

units (seedbeds) to a working space area for handling and

processing. Author-designed factory is designed with such an

automated system with streamline-style production line operation.

5) It should utilize “Multi-Stage-Transplanting-Method”: traditional

land-growing-method designates a fixed fully-grown-vegetable-size

area for growing vegetable from seed to harvestable-stage. While


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“Multi-Stage-Transplanting-Method” designates different areas to

grow sprouts arranged in different density to optimize the usage of

growing area. And transplanting of sprouts from high density area to

lower density area is performed at end of each growing stage cycle.

Mathematic calculation proves that this method can grow 2.5 times

more vegetables than the traditional method. However, due to the

large of transplanting action of sprouts from stage to stage is needed,

this method can only be easily implemented on Vertical Farming

Factory with “Automated-Moving-Seedbeds-System”. Instead of

performing transplanting during each end of stage time, Vertical

Farming Factory with automated moving seedbed system averages

out all the transplanting work on a daily processing basis. With

Vertical Farming’s increasing production quantity efficiency by the

number of layers in the vertical structure, and the

“Multi-Stage-Transplanting-Method” increasing production quantity

efficiency by 250%, the total combined production quantity efficiency

can reach 6-10 times verses the traditional growing method on a

non-vertical farming way. That is why author-designed 1530 ㎡

factory can produce more than 1 million heads of lettuces a year.

6) It should utilize industrial streamline-style production: The traditional

agriculture-style production is a style that farm workers roaming

around the whole growing space area performing production-related

work. This is wasteful as well as non-effective. The industrial

streamline-style utilizes production line setup for workers to stay at

the side of it and perform the necessary handling and processing.

Therefore, author-designed hydroponic vertical farming factory of

leafy-vegetables is designed with separated growing space and

working space. Plus the “Automated-Moving-Seedbeds- System” is

designed to allow farm works to stay on the side of the production line

in the working space and the robotic vehicles are used to transfer the

need-to-be-processed seedbeds to the production line. This set-up

increases the production efficiency and cuts down the wastes in labor

and cost as well.

7) It should be installed inside a sealed industrial workshop building:


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glass greenhouse is not well-insulated which increases the

heating/cooling cost in the places with hot summer temperature or

cold winter temperature. Also, glass greenhouse costs more to build

than the simple industrial workshop building. All of these contribute to

saving of costs, therefore, increasing of profitability. Author-designed

factory utilizes industrial workshop building, not glass greenhouses

for saving costs as well as the total controllability of vegetables

growing environment.

8) It should utilize automated recycling-irrigation system: water-saving

is important in place like Qatar. Author-designed factory is installed

with such a computer-controlled recycling irrigation system.

9) It should utilize automated LED illumination system: Qatar can

provide low-cost electricity and this will not be a major expense for

our factory’s operation. Author-designed factory is installed with such

a computer-controlled LED illumination system.

10) It has to generate profitability on its operation in the locality: For any

hydroponic factory that requires governmental subsides to operate is

not qualified to help that locality reaching its self-sufficiency of

leafy-vegetables production. Author-designed factory built and

operated in properly-selected places can produce high annual ROI if

the locality can offer low-cost electricity and high market price of

leafy-vegetables.

Now we introduce author-designed commercial level hydroponic vertical

farming factory of leafy-vegetables. Following is a diagram illustrates the

over-all design concepts:


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An actual implementation picture is shown here:

Whole system is built inside a seal industrial building. There are two

separated spaces inside: a large-sized growing space and a smaller

working space (HeadHouse).

The growing space installs with vertical structure for storage of a large

number of growing units equipped with automated irrigation (NFT

method) and LED illumination system. Author-designed standard 1530

㎡ factory can store 273 seedbeds in a 3-layer structure. Each seedbed


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is 4.3M X 1.73M offering a growing unit area of 7.5 ㎡ each and total

combined vegetable-planting area over 2100 ㎡.

The HeadHouse space installs with workbench-production-line, storage

shelves and other production-process-r, packaging and shipping-related

equipments.

Automated moving seedbeds system is designed to transport

growing-unit-seedbeds between HeadHouse and Vertical-Farming

Growing Space, allowing workers only to work inside the HeadHouse.

Two robotic vehicles are used for transporting all growing units between

the growing space and HeadHouse:


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Workers are only staying inside the HeadHouse, not requiring traveling into

the growing space at all. These two robotic vehicles will transfer all

need-to-be-processed seedbeds from the working space to the production

line in the working space. Seedbeds are transferred back to the growing

space after production processed is performed by the workers.

Author-designed growing unit (Movable Seedbed) is shown here:

Intelligent Robots that shuttle Seedbeds between the Growing Space and Headhouse

A Robot Retrieves Seedbed from Growing Area to

Headhouse

A Robot Delivers Seedbed from Headhouse to Growing

Area


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A germination room is built to produce initial sprouts from vegetable

seeds. The germination process will be easier to handle and produce

higher success rate in a germination room than on the seedbeds.

We utilize all of our growing space with

Multi-Stage-Transplanting-Method. Three specially designed inlays are

designed for 3 different stages each with matched density so that the

production quantity can be maximized. This method can generate 2.5

times of production quantity than the one-fixed-area-one-vegetable

method.

Automated hydroponic NFT with closed-circled liquid-fertilizing system is

installed. A closed-circulating irrigation system is installed with a nutrient

tanks providing all the nutrient flowing from the tank to every single

Growing Unit placed on the vertical shelves.

A computer-control LED illumination system shall be used to deliver

Growing Unit: Movable Seedbed

Seedbed’s Frame

Hydroponic or Tidal IrrigationBeing performed on each seedbed

Seedbed + Inlay


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artificial sun-lighting to every single Growing Unit on the vertical shelve.

Automated CO2 generators are installed supplying enough CO2 for the

vegetables’ growing needs. The normal PPM value of the air is 300. But

we need to increase to 1000-1500 so that it fits best for vegetable

growing. Also due to that our grown space is sealed, the CO2 inside

shall be consumed and re-supplied through a CO2 generating system.

A fully-functional HeadHouse with proper workbenches, shelves,

automatic seeding machines is installed so that all

handling/transplanting of sprouts, sprouts, and harvesting of vegetables

can be operated inside. HeadHouse should be equipped with proper

benches and storage shelves for sprouts-tranplanting as well as

harvesting/packaging/shipping process inside.

All technologies and practical know-hows on growing all types of

leafy-vegetables are provided (including recipes of fertilizer and

acidity ,SOPs on sprouting, transplanting, and harvesting, SOPs on

growing cycle control, irrigation control, illumination control, CO2 control,


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and pest or disease control for all types of leafy-vegetables）

Also provided are the hardware and software know-how on the

technology of vegetable growth. We can tailor our system to any kind of

leafy-vegetable for our customers.

How large is the mass-production capacity of our factory? Using

lettuce production as an example, this factory can produce more than 1

million heads of lettuce (200g each). The annual production reaches 200

tons on a total investment of 1.55 million USD. For comparison, an

optimized and well-managed conventional greenhouse of the same size

operating in a year, produces 20-25 tons of lettuce a year. So, our

factory can be 8-10 times more efficient in production quantity with a

total investment of 0.3-0.4 million USD. Another way to measure our

factory is that it can produce about 1200-1400 MTs (tons) of lettuces per

hectare with total investment of $10.3 million USD.


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How to achieve high ROI by selecting the right location to build and operate our factories?

The advantages of our hydroponic vertical farming factory of vegetables

are as follows:

Minimum usage of land：

Minimum usage of water resource：

Minimum usage of liquid fertilizer and acid

Minimum usage of chemicals of producing CO2：

Minimum usage of consumable materials

Daily production procedure is simple and SOPed：

Minimum usage of labors and low demands on labor quality:

Only vegetable seeds required：

Production operated year-round , no impacts from weather, climate

or nature disasters

Production Quantity and Quality is consistent everywhere on the

globe, operation repeatable everywhere on the globe

Now we look at the disadvantage of it. The major disadvantage is that

our factory requires the consumption of a large amount of electricity on

LED-illumination and building’s cooling/heating. A large number of LED

light tubes are installed in the system and they are operated 16 hours a

day and 365 days a year. This consumed lots of electrical power. And to

maintain best vegetables growing temperature inside the sealed growing

space with consistent 25-30 ° C year-round, also consumes lots of

electrical power.

To find out how much electricity is required, we focus two major parts of

the electricity usage: The LED illumination, and build temperature

cooling/heating.

LED illumination required for vegetables growing are provided through

the LED light tubes installed on top of every growing units in the growing

space. Following are actual data calculations:


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LED light bulbs are 1.2 meter T8, 18W LED light tubes

For author-designed 1500 sq meters factory, there are 11781 LED light

tubes used forming 10000 LUX of illumination for vegetables growing

For maximum operation, we may provide 16 hours per day of illumination

every day in the year

Electricity is calculated with following formula:

18W x 11781 x 16 x 365 / 1000 = 1,238,418 KW-H

Estimate building cooling/heating requires 750,000 KW-H from following

calculation:

200W per sq. meter cooling system for 1500 sq. meter space,

200Wx1500 x 12 Hr. per day x 180 days per year /1000 = 864,000 KW-H

Total Electricity consumption annually is about 2 million KW-H.

For the same factory, to build and operate in different location, the annual

total cost on electricity consumptions：

Electricity (per

KW-Hr)

Total Cost of

Electricity Used China $0.100 $200,000

Qatar $0.014 $28,000

Bahrain $0.040 $80,000

Kuwait $0.010 $20,000

USA $0.075 $150,000

Nordic Europe continent

Countries

$0.400

$500,000

Iceland $0.080 $100,000

[Note: for Nordic Europe locations, no building heating/cooling is

needed]

Some experts suggest the solar power should be utilized to generate the

electricity required. Author believes this solution is non-practice at the


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current time. A solar system to generate 2 million KW-H of consistent

electricity requires: a) An unbelievably high cost, b) A very large space is

needed for the installation of solar panels, c) Solar power requires

steady sun lighting year-round and when such condition is not met, the

electricity generated becomes inconsistent. To solve this problem with

Solar Energy solution cannot resolve the issue and even adds more

issues.

We can see that it makes huge difference on the total cost of operation if

our factory is operated on different location. From the above chart, if we

choose to operate our factory in Norway, Denmark, Finland or Sweden,

the cost of electricity a year by itself will be 0.8 million USD, which

requires us to sell wholesale price with $0.8 more a head of our lettuce to

just balance out the electricity cost. This is not possible at all.

Author’s conclusion, is that in the year of 2014, picking the right location

where low-cost electricity is provided, is the only practical solution to cut

the total cost of operation down so profit can be made.

So, we conclude:

Rule to cut cost of electricity of our factory is

location-dependent.

Now let us analyze the other side of the balance sheet of a financial

statement: the income side. To bring the income up of our factory, is as

simple as to sell the vegetables produced with higher price. However,

the market price of vegetables are determined by the market, and again,

it is very location-dependent. This is due to that at certainty locations,

due to their deficiency of producing vegetables on local land, drives their

selling price of vegetables stably high. We use the same locations of our

electricity investigation to find out how much the price of a head of

lettuce is sold there:


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For one head of lettuce:

Market Retail Price

China $0.75

Qatar $1.60- $1.80

Bahrain $1.70 - $1.90

Kuwait $1.80 - $2.30

USA $1.00 - $2.00

Nordic Europe Continent Countries $2.10- $2.80

Iceland $2.90 - $3.10

If we consider that our factory is already maximized in its design, then

there is no other method of increasing its income than finding a location

where we can sell higher price of our vegetables produced. Author,

therefore, concludes that:

Rule to increase the income of our factory is

location-dependent

Combine the Cost Cutting Rule and the Income Increasing Rule, author

concludes that to obtain high ROI of an already-well-designed

hydroponic vertical farming factory is to find the most-suitable place to

build and operate.

Comparing Cost of Electricity and local Market Price of Lettuce to

determine whether the location is a good or bad place to build and

operate：

Electricity

(per

KW-Hr)

Lettuce Per

Head

Market Retail

Price

Lettuce Per Head

Wholesale Selling

Price

Good

Place

to

Operate


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China $0.100 $0.75 $0.30 No

Qatar $0.014 $1.60-$1.80 $1.10 Yes

Bahrain $0.40 $1.70-$1.90 $1.10 Yes

Kuwait $0.01 $1.80 - $2.30 $1.20 Yes

USA $0.075 $1.00 - $2.00 $0.600 No

Nordic

Europe $0.40 $2.10 - $2.80 $1.40 - $1.6

No

Iceland $0.08 $2.90 - $3.10 $1.800 Yes

In China, the cost of electricity is not high comparing worldwide. But its

market price of lettuce is low due to that there are plenty of land-grown

lettuces produced that drives the market price down. We cannot operate

our factory there with profit.

In USA, its cost of electricity is lower than China, but with higher labor

cost and its vast amount of land-grown lettuces available, its market

price is still relatively low. We cannot operate our factory there with high

ROI.

So, author concludes that, luckily still, there are four places found in the

world that we can build and operate our factory with high profitability:

The State of Qatar: with its dessert climate, low rain-falls, high

temperature in the summer, there is only 3 months in the year that

land-grown lettuce can be grown. 97% of its vegetables consumption for

2 million local residents is air-shipped from other countries. This drives

the local market price of vegetables stably high.

Qatar is rich in natural-gas resource and petroleum.

Natural-gas-produced electricity makes its cost stably low. This is a

place with high certainty that we can make high ROI on our factory there.


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The State of Bahrain: Bahrain is similar situation as that in Qatar. The

dessert climate, high temperature, low rain-falls, limits its land-grown

vegetables production in 3 month a year time. Its 93% of the vegetables

consumption for 1 million local residents replies on imported vegetables

from other countries. This drives its local market price of vegetables

stably high, same as that in Qatar.

Bahrain is rich in petroleum resource and its electricity cost still is

relatively low comparing worldwide. We can obtain high ROI by

building and operating our factory in Bahrain.

The State of Kuwait: Kuwait also is in similar situation as that in Qatar.

The dessert climate, high temperature, low rain-falls, limits its

land-grown vegetables production in 3 month a year time. Its 98% of the

vegetables consumption for 4million local residents relies on imported

vegetables from other countries. This drives its local market price of

vegetables stably high, same as that in Qatar.

Kuwait also provides low-cost electricity (currently very low with

governmental subsidy). Even if Kuwait government cancel its subsidy on

electricity and bring the cost to the level of that in Qatar or Bahrain, we

can still operate our factory there with high ROI.

The Republic of Iceland: Iceland is a unique place that is very interesting

to discuss. It belongs to Nordic Europe but it is an island-country by itself

about 1000 KM west of Nordic Europe Continent. Iceland’s high latitude

and very low temperature makes the land-grown vegetables impossible

to produce. All of its vegetables consumptions of its 330,000 populations

are imported from other countries. This drives its local market price of

vegetables extremely high. One head of lettuce is sold with retailed price

more than $2.90 - $3.10 USD. Iceland is rich in hydroelectric power and

its cost of electricity is low. Iceland is also rich in geothermal energy that

drives its cost of building heating low.


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But, Iceland’s population is only 330,000, therefore with limited market

size. Can we build our factories there, and export the vegetables

produced elsewhere with larger market size? The answer is: yes, we can

export vegetables produced to the larger market on the Nordic Europe

Continents: countries of Norway, Denmark, Finland and Sweden. The

total population there is 24.5 million people there and vegetables price

are very high.

If we utilize the low cost electricity in Iceland to operate our factories

there, then ocean-freight shipped vegetables produced to these 4 Nordic

Europe Continent countries, we can obtain more profitability with more

factories to build and operate in Iceland.

A magic to turn Seeds into Gold:Unique Advantage of Iceland: We can Build and Operate in Iceland

but target the market at all 5 of the Nordic Europe Countries

Here, Market Price

of vegetables is

high

Here, cost of

electricity is low,

also rich in

geothermal

energy

Distance

<1000Km


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To calculate the Total Number of Lettuces produced annually in our factory:

With actual data collected in a in the author-designed factory in

2012-2013, we provide heads of lettuces that a 1530 sq. meters factory

that can be produced annually:

System Configurations and production statistics:

Total of Growing Units: 273

Each Growing Units size: 4.3M X 1.73M

Cost of industrial workshop build: $250,000

Cost of Hydroponic Vertical Farming System installed inside: $1.3

Million.

System has a Germination Room to produce initial-sprouts

(2cmX2cm-size) from vegetable-seeds daily with 14 days of growing

cycle. 4950 initial-sprouts (2cmX2cm-size) can be produced daily.

System utilizes 26 growing units to produce stronger-sprouts

(4cmX4cm-size) from initial-sprouts (2cmX2cm-size). 1 growing units

(around 3600 stronger-sprouts) can be produced daily.

System utilizes 52 growing units to product lager-sprouts

(7cmX7cm-size) from stronger-sprouts (4cmX4cm-size) with 20 days of

growing cycle. 2.6 growing units (and 3200 stronger-sprouts) can be

produced daily.

System utilizes 195 growing units to product harvestable lettuces

(14cmX14cm-size) with 20 days of growing cycle. 9.25 growing units

(and 2900 vegetables) can be produced daily.

Total Number of Lettuces can be produced annually:

Annual Production calculations:

With one stage of sprouting in a Sprouting

Room, and 3 stages to grow sprouts to

lettuces, the final daily number of seedbeds

that we can produce harvesting vegetables

9.25 Growing

Units


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are:

Harvestable Lettuces on each Growing Units

are:

348 Head

Annual Production Days are: 365 days

Annual Number of Lettuce that we grow: 1,174,935 Head

Consider survival rate of the lettuce on each

Growing Unit:

90%

Actual Number of Lettuces produced annually 1,057,442 Head


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P&L Statements of building and operating our factory:

In State of Qatar：Wholesale Price per head of Lettuce 1.1 USD

Number of Heads of Lettuce produced annually 1,057,442 Head

Wholesale Price per head of Lettuce 1.1 USD

Total Annual Income 1,163,186 USD

Profit & Loss Statement

1530 Sq. M Hydroponic Vertical Farming Factory $1,540,323 USD

Total Annual Income $1,163,186 USD

USD

Total Annual Expenses $530,801 USD

Labor Cost (total of 13 labors working 2 shifts) $179,200 USD

Cost of seeds $44,761 USD

Cost of Sprout Supporters $29,141 USD

Liquid Fertilizer $9,677 USD

Consumable Materials $5,181 USD

Cost of Packaging Materials $68,222 USD

Cost of Cooling or Heating $12,096 USD

Cost of Electricity for LED Illumination $17,338 USD

Land Rental Fee $23,516 USD

Depreciation (95% depreciate in 15 years) $97,043 USD

System Operation and Maintenance $12,903 USD

Administration Fee(3% of Total Income） $31,723 USD

Profit or Loss $632,384 USD

Profit Taxes （there is no such tax in Qatar） 0%

Net Profit or Loss $632,384 USD

Return on Investment 41.1% %

We can see that we can obtain annual ROI of 41% by building and

operating our factory in Qatar.


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In State of Bahrain：Wholesale Price per head of Lettuce 1.1 USD




Profit & Loss Statement:



USD















Profit Taxes （there is no such tax in Qatar） %


Return on Investment 37.4%


operating our factory in Bahrain.


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In State of Kuwait：Wholesale Price per head of Lettuce 1.2 USD







USD















Profit Taxes （there is no such tax in Qatar） 0% %


Return on Investment 47.2%


operating our factory in Kuwait.


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In Iceland：Wholesale Price per head of Lettuce 1.8 USD







USD

Total Annual Expenses $1,162,619 USD







Cost of Cooling or Heating $0 USD







Profit Taxes(Unknown, assumed no such tax) 20% %


Return on Investment 38.5% %

We can see that we can obtain annual ROI of 38% (after tax) by building

and operating our factory in Iceland.


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Conclusions:

With the attractiveness of commercial hydroponic farming, investors are

facing decision to make on business proposals in this field. However,

with lots of confusions on its technologies as well as on its business

operations, many investors are lost in the maze of this gigantic high-tech

puzzle.

Author offers his own practical prior experiences and provides

quantitative decision-making insights for investors to be more intelligent

to make their decisions.

The simple rule of thumbs offered in this article for investors to consider

investment in a Hydroponic Vertical Farming business is: The design of

the Hydroponic Farming Factory has to reach the goal of high-efficiency

and mass-production capability in order to produce vegetables

cost-effectively. Then, the next rule is to make decision to invest only on

business proposal that selects the right location to build and operate

such factories.

By applying the above mentioned rules, we found that we can build and

operate our factories in Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and Iceland and can be

very profitable.

Currently, in these 4 locations, their governments are vigorously seeking

solutions of self-reliance and self-sufficiency of their local vegetables

production. To obtain food security is on their high priority list. They are

rich either in petroleum, natural gas, or hydroelectric power and they all

can provide low-cost electricity. And we can offer them a solution for

them to utilize their electricity resource (which they do have) to produce

their leafy-vegetables (which they do not have). And self-sufficiency of

leafy-vegetables production on these 4 locations can be reached by

building and operating large numbers of our efficiently-designed

hydroponic vertical farming factories.


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Final Notes:

NOTE1: Author-designed Hydroponic Vertical Farming Factory of

Leafy-Vegetables is manufactured and semi-assembled in China. The

semi-assembled factory will be shipped container-ocean-freight to final site for final

assembly and testing onsite. Lead-time from the order is given (with 66% down

payment), to the delivery onsite is 3 months, and final assembly and testing time is 2

months. So, total of 5 months of lead-time before the system is functional shall be

expected.

NOTE2: The standard1530 ㎡, 273 seedbeds system price is 1.3 USD FOB

Shanghai, China including all turn-key system equipments inside an industrial

workshop building. This price excludes the industrial workshop building itself and the

temperature-controlled system of the building.

NOTE3: Author’s company will guarantee our customer of the production of the

mutually-agreed type of leafy-vegetables, and is willing to perform the vegetables

production operation for the customer under mutually-agreed contract (with charge) if

so desired by the customer.

NOTE4: Author-designed factory currently is designed for lettuce growing and

production. Other mutually-agreed type of leafy-vegetable can be chosen and

author’s company will make the proper modification to perform the production of

vegetable type chosen. However, we only allow one type of leafy-vegetables to be

grown and produced in one factory. The production of various mixed-types of

leafy-vegetables in the same factory will weaken the utilization of seedbeds and

degrade the efficiency of the production (and may lose the profitability), therefore, not

supported.

NOTE5: Because our factory utilize the “Multi-Stage-Transplanting-Growing-Method”,

there is a ramp-up time of 74 days (in the case of lettuce production) before daily

production of targeted quantity can be performed from that day and on. The ramp-up

times for different type of leafy-vegetables may vary.

Contact: Peter Teng, Email: [email protected] Tel: +86-186-5526-9911

mailto:[email protected]

can hydroponic farming of leafy-vegetables be profitable 20140822.pdf

Documents

hydroponic farming of

authordesigned factory

high roi

selfsufficiency of leafy

high efficiency

production quantity

production costeffective

high annual roi