[Participation Report] Learning from Oishii Farm: The Path of Challenging the Global Market Based on Japanese Technology

The exact event title is "【CEREAL TALK Event #7】Learning from Oishii Farm: The Path to Challenging the Global Market Based on Japanese Technology (Guest: Daiki Koga)"

I participated because I had the opportunity to meet offline with Mr. Koga, the founder of Oishii Farm, who has been successfully launching and operating a strawberry plant factory in the United States.

Mr. Koga introduced himself and the plant factory. It is now version 4 (I think).
Like the latest Amazon warehouses, the strawberry shelves move, and robotic arms harvest and package them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCzxdTIq5RA&t=5s

Their strength is successfully controlling bees for pollination inside the plant factory

• How to build a brand

  • In the early stages, the utilization rate is low and the cost is high. How can you sell such products? You need a brand.

• Japanese home appliance manufacturers and others started plant factories. They grew lettuce and other crops that were relatively easy to cultivate using their own LEDs and other products. However, they all withdrew.

• Next, several plant factory startups emerged in the U.S. Some received funding from well-known sources, but most of them also failed.

• Regarding fresh produce in the U.S.: Products are grown in California and then transported across the country for two or three days to reach New York. As a result, for example, fruit varieties are selected for their hardness to withstand transportation vibrations, and the taste is mediocre.

• Consider brand strategy. Reference Tesla Motors:
  First premium, then mid-range, and finally mass-market cars.

Premium period:
For example, have celebrities purchase the product. This leads to widespread exposure across various media and SNS.
Some companies pay for diffusion, but Oishii did not.
They also supplied high-end three-star restaurants.
This was the premium period.

Mid-range period:
Became able to sell at $10. Started selling at Whole Foods (high-end grocery store).

Recent news. They established an R&D facility in Japan.
Plant Factory Research Facility "Open Innovation Center" to Be Established in Tokyo

The components used in the plant factory are mostly made in Japan.
For example, they use a robot arm for harvesting, but the harvesting tip is proprietary and assembled in-house.
They are looking into whether it's possible to receive deliveries with the tip already attached (they have introduced enough units to be able to say this).

Collaboration – since they are introducing large volumes, how about investing?

The co-founder (American) showed adaptability to local culture and built connections.
For example, moving their own documents to the top to speed up application processing.
Connections helped move things along quickly.

Areas of interest for Mr. Koga:
Deep tech, food, and agri-tech.
For example, if nuclear fusion in deep tech becomes a reality and electricity costs decrease, it would benefit plant factories.
Electricity costs currently account for about 30% of expenses, so they want to reduce this.

    Regarding food and agri-tech, an acquaintance in Japan is working on land-based aquaculture.