Commercial greenhouses - just for the elite few?

Hoosierdoc

There is not much activity here in the commercial section. I get the trade secret and IP side of things, but it seems most posts about commercial activity is to say it's extremely difficult to make money doing it.

Is that an aquaponic issue or a greenhouse issue? Is hydroponics easier to dongreenhouse production due to clean water?

I'm intrigued by commercial greenhouse growing here in Indiana. Been watching a lot of videos of the guys out west and their massive setups. Their incorporation of technology is phenomenal but also seems to be a barrier to entry for is little folks.

Just curious what you guys think about viability of commercial greenhouse operations.

Yavimaya

greenhouses are expensive as *frack* to setup, with aquaponics, even more so.
hydroponics has easily determinable outcomes if you ""follow the instructions".... there are no instructions for aquaponics.

aquaponics hasnt been around long enough on a commercial level to be big, it may get there one day, but since there is already hydro, maybe not.

all industries have secrets they dont want getting out so there is less competition, but this isnt why that section of the forum is quiet, there simply arent enough people doing it..... and those who are are working their arses off, not posting on a forum.

Mr Damage

There are many commercial aquaponic operations around the world operating very successfully. Many of them, especially in SE Asia, are leasing or buying abandoned hydroponic and cut flowers greenhouses, so their start up costs are minimised.

Arvind from Waterfarmers Aquaponics has, at this point in time, overseen the sub-contract development of 15 commercial scale operations in the last few years, mostly in SE Asia, India, and the Middle East. Although from Canada, he is involved in an experimental farm in the Middle East, where he spends many months of the year testing and trialling. He has well established figures on inputs of fish feed required per sqm of growing area for individual crop types etc, and it’s nowhere near the levels often quoted on forums etc. He probably has more data on commercial scale aquaponics than anyone else in the industry at this point.
https://www.waterfarmers.ca

There are many privately owned and operated commercial scale farms through SE Asia and the Middle East, as well as a few throughout the U.S.
A good example being the Evergreens Republic farm in Hong Kong, operated but Ray Lok and Leon Yao, which is currently up to 2500 sqm of growing area and has captured 10% of the Hong Kong organic food market in just 2 years... Yes they are USDA organically certified.
http://www.evergreensrepublic.com/en/ ...scroll down when you get to the page.

Another excellent example is the massive Mannacea farm in South Korea, about 60k’s SE of Seoul, operated by Aron Park and Taebyung Jeon. They have recently doubled the size of their operation, which takes the total growing area up to 15,000 sqm. Prior to the upgrade they were turning over somewhere in the region of U.S. $1.2M per month, primarily due to some very innovative technology and ideas, as well as value adding and direct sales to the public through an online store that delivers the produce direct to the customer’s door.
http://www.mannacea.com/

GurkanYeniceri

Wow just wow.

Hoosierdoc

Thanks for those examples. We have a company here in Indy doing it commercially. They hired some big name local guys to help run it. They are inside a building using grow lights for greens and microgreens.

I guess my question is if looking at a commercial grown operation, is it easier to just do hydro in a greenhouse? The phrase "follow the money" seems to apply in this case, and it's not aquaponics (yet)

Don't get me wrong, i love AP and am ramping up my system. Just thinking about future directions.

Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics