"After nearly a decade of operating our own indoor farms, we have a much clearer understanding of where some of the hardest questions lie," says Hiroki Koga, Co-Founder and CEO of Oishii. With its Open Innovation Center now open in Hamura, Tokyo, he lays out what the facility is actually built to solve, and how the company plans to turn that research into changes on the farm floor.
© Oishii
Hiroki Koga
What the Center is built to solve
"The Center is designed to address some of the fundamental challenges that come with making indoor agriculture more scalable and productive, including farming systems, cultivation technologies, sustainability, crop quality and flavor," Hiroki says. "It gives us a dedicated environment to bring together expertise from agriculture, manufacturing, robotics and emerging technologies to tackle them."
"Over the next several years, success will ultimately mean translating that research into meaningful advances in how we grow: improving productivity and sustainability while continuing to deliver the quality and flavor that consumers expect from Oishii," he says. "We see the three- to five-year horizon as an opportunity to build the capabilities and partnersh...