Controlled environment agriculture (CEA), an indoor, technology-based approach towards cultivating crops under optimal growing conditions, is rapidly expanding in large part due to growing consumer demand for low environmental impact food, local food systems, and improved accessibility to high-quality produce with shorter supply chains. CEA encompasses not only the high investment momentum vertical farming sector but also the indoor cultivation of an ever increasing range of specialty crops for a range of applications from food to health. CEA systems are evolving to improve resource use efficiency while simultaneously optimizing crop yields and quality, but can often suffer from high costs of production due to technology and energy requirements.
The global market size for controlled environment agriculture (CEA) is set to reach a market value of $100 billion by 2030, with six potential opportunities – automation, digital management and analytics, lighting, growing media, crop inputs, and seeds – capturing $78 billion in market share.
- Automation will become the largest sector for CEA, capturing 43% of the total market value by 2030.
- Lighting and management and analytics are key innovation areas to improve production outcomes.
- Crop inputs and media are aimed at optimizing CEA production with the highest quality standards.
- Despite the maturity of the seed industry, the development of seeds for CEA environments has not been on the radar until recently.
Our report, “Exploring Opportunities Arising From Controlled Environment Agriculture”, explores industry momentum across the CEA landscape and breaks down the technology requirements to identify regional opportunities.
Download the executive summary to learn more.