Recently, Jingdong Fresh announced that Jingdong Fresh and Run Chickens, Swimming Ducks, Flying Pigeons, and plant factories and Hehua Village have matured into agricultural business models and will be replicated globally in the future. The plant factory's agricultural products have already been sold in Jingdong Mall and have received positive feedback from users.
In June 2017, Japanese media reported that Jingdong Group and Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Group of Japan had started business cooperation in the field of plant factories. Jingdong will be involved in vegetable production and Mitsubishi Chemical will provide it with plant factories and cultivation techniques.
What is a plant factory?
Plant factory is an efficient agricultural system that achieves annual continuous production of crops through high-precision environmental control within the facility. It uses intelligent computers and electronic sensing systems to automatically control plant growth temperature, humidity, light, CO2 concentration, and nutrient solution and other environmental conditions. The labor-saving production methods that make the growth and development of the plants within the facility unaffected or rarely constrained by natural conditions.
Plant factory is the advanced stage of the development of modern facility agriculture. It is a production system with high input, high technology, and fine equipment. It integrates biotechnology, engineering technology, and system management to separate agricultural production from the shackles of natural ecology. The industrialized agricultural system, which is planned to carry out the annual production of plant products, is one of the most dynamic and potential fields for absorbing and applying high-tech achievements in the process of agricultural industrialization, and represents the direction of future agricultural development.
how to cooperate? 2 paths
Article 1: Production line.
Mitsubishi Chemical will provide hydroponic cultivation systems and provide technical guidance on seed selection, seeding, harvesting, and packaging, as well as health management and vegetable production records management.
Article 2: Supply Chain.
Plant factories will produce 300 tons of vegetables and other vegetables every year. JD.com will carry out sales through independent cultivation and use of the company's logistics network, e-commerce platform, and new retail outlets.
How does Jingdong produce vegetables?
By adopting a highly functional film that prevents entry of pests, vegetables can be cultivated in a pesticide-free manner. If spinach is planted, it can be harvested 20 times a year, about 5 times more than in open-air cultivation.
At the same time, the cost is not low. The Jingdong plant factory system has a sales price of about 100 million yen (about 6.12 million yuan) per 3,000 square meters.
1. Leaf-based vegetables: Container-changed plant facilities, mainly lettuces and kaffir, lettuce, rape and other leafy vegetables, there are currently small tomatoes, cucumbers and other fruits and vegetables.
2. Light energy: sunlight, LED light
3. Water cultivation method: The plant factory in Jingdong cultivates seedlings through a container-type device, and then transplants the seedlings into a plastic greenhouse and hydroponics through sunlight and liquid culture. Vegetable cultivation system is higher than the ground, which can eliminate the pollution of soil pests, existing heavy metals and other harmful substances; at the same time, it can also avoid the pollution of living environment caused by pesticides and chemical fertilizers.
4. Automated training: Its characteristic is computer management. After measuring the temperature, humidity, and air flow conditions, water, nutrient solution, and fertilizer are placed to automatically cultivate.
5. Scientific management: Seed quality control, intelligent seedlings, automation and data-based water fertilization, solar greenhouse production, unified specification harvesting, all strictly follow the standardization process, and the products have passed the standard test of international authoritative organizations.
6. Preservation: The construction of a fresh co-operative warehouse and an exclusive fresh-keeping cold storehouse. The hydroponic vegetable cooperative warehouse is the first collaborative warehouse for the production of vegetables, which can realize the seamless docking of vegetables from the base to the distribution, reduce improper storage, shorten the intermediate replacement, and fully guarantee the freshness of vegetables. It is understood that Jingdong fresh cold storage has been covered: deep cold (below -22 °C), frozen (-18 °C), cold (0-4 °C), temperature control (10-15 °C) four temperature zones to ensure After hydroponic vegetables are harvested, they are pre-cooled in the shortest possible time to reduce losses and lock in nutrients and moisture.
7. Positioning: high-end vegetables. Compared with ordinary vegetables, hydroponic vegetables have a short growth cycle, less fiber accumulation, crisp and tender taste, and are rich in many essential vitamins and minerals. However, the east hydroponic vegetables of Jingdong Plant Factory are cheaper than organic vegetables. Because Jingdong Fresh is not just a crowd serving the top of the pyramid, it is better for all consumers to eat.
Jingdong Plant Factory's vegetable products also face four major problems:
1. Problems with competitive markets. The number of entrepreneurs and operators in plant factories has gradually increased. There are at least hundreds of competitors in the country. Then, in the future, these plant factories will win market and users. 1) Brand; 2) Services.
2. The problem of consumption power. Jingdong Plant Factory is currently located in first-tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. Because there are a large number of high-quality consumers and users here, how do consumers in three or four cities meet? As a result, there will be emerging frontline entrepreneurs and three- and four-tier cities.
3. Distribution channel issues. Plant plants that want to be profitable quickly must be mass-produced and meet the needs of more people. Therefore, in addition to the C-side of distribution channels, cooperation with large catering chain companies is king. At present, it has been cooperated with plant hotpot restaurants and Haili fishing and catering. However, the vegetable sales channels of Jingdong Plant Factory are only sold in Jingdong Mall and Jingdong 7FRESH, and the membership system is sold, but the frequency of consumer consumption or consumer memory is not strong.
4. Business model problem. Many plant farms not only sell vegetables, but also rely on new business models, such as parent-child education, leisure agriculture, picking activities, and diy experiences, to tap users' deep needs for plant factories.
In the future, plant plant participants will work on brands, business models, and services.
