Nongshim announced on the 23rd that it plans to establish a K-smart farm in Saudi Arabia.
According to Nongshim, a groundbreaking ceremony for a pilot greenhouse to establish a K-smart farm export hub to the Middle East was held on the 21st (local time) with Vice Minister Park Beom-soo of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and Vice Minister Al Mushaiti of the Saudi Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture, among other officials, at the National Agriculture Research Center in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. This ceremony is part of the 'Smart Farm Export Activation Project' that Nongshim signed with the Korea Agricultural Technology Promotion Agency in July last year.
The Smart Farm Export Activation Project is hosted by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and supervised by the Korea Agricultural Technology Promotion Agency. The main purpose of the project is to build and operate a Korean-style smart farm model locally in Saudi Arabia to promote the entry of the domestic smart farm industry into the Middle East.
Nongshim has been selected for this project, forming a consortium with three corporations, representing Korean businesses. The Nongshim smart farm will be approximately 2,000 square meters and is scheduled to be completed by December this year. Additionally, various K-smart farm technologies, including advanced agricultural robots and environmental control solutions, will be showcased.
In particular, crops produced by Nongshim will be initially sold through the existing distribution networks of local partners and will also plan to enter local retail stores like Carrefour and Lulu hypermarkets, as well as e-commerce platforms such as Amazon and Noon in the future. Through this project, Nongshim aims to widely promote the excellence of 'K-smart farms' in the Middle East and expand related industries.
In addition, by stably operating customized smart farm packages, Nongshim aims not only to secure competitiveness but also to build a cluster that brings together related industries such as crop research and processing and distribution sales, using it as a foothold for global expansion.
A Nongshim official noted, “We plan to promote the excellence of 'K-smart farms' in Saudi Arabia on behalf of South Korea,” and added, “With this groundbreaking of the Saudi smart farm, we will accelerate Nongshim's global expansion of smart farms.”