Panasonic's vegetable factory in China will triple its output

According to the Nikkei Chinese website, Panasonic will use vegetable factories in China to produce and sell vegetables with high added value starting from March 2018. Lettuce, etc. will be cultivated at the Suzhou factory, made into salads, and sold at about 30 stores including supermarkets in Suzhou and Shanghai. In China, consumers are paying more and more attention to food safety. Panasonic will market its products in the growing Chinese market with well-managed production and easy-to-trace cultivation.

Panasonic began trial operation of a vegetable factory in 2016 at its Suzhou subsidiary, which makes equipment for manufacturing electronic components. In the future, the output will be tripled to 9 tons per month, and the facility will be officially put into production, and the 1,000-square-meter facility will be operating at full capacity.

The price is expected to be about 2 to 2.5 times that of local companies. It has been selling in AEON and Izumiya department stores in Suzhou before, and plans to expand its sales to the stores of local companies in the future, expand sales to Chinese people, and will also develop business in other regions.

Panasonic's vegetable factory uses light-emitting diodes (LEDs) to adjust the amount of light. Ensure a certain temperature, humidity and carbon dioxide concentration, and cultivate vegetables rich in -carotene and other nutrients throughout the year.

The processed salad will feature high nutritional value and safety, and will also be provided to restaurants and the like. Panasonic will also cooperate with local e-commerce companies. Not only selling vegetables, but also discussing the sale of related equipment for vegetable factories.

In China, due to problems such as the extensive use of pesticides, consumers' awareness of food safety has gradually increased. Therefore, attention to vegetable factories is also increasing, and construction began in various places around 2010.

Initially, the vegetable factory was positioned as a cutting-edge technology display window for the government and enterprises. Because of the large amount of government subsidies, various enterprises set foot in it one after another. The scale of the vegetable factory is gradually expanding, and it is reported that there are even factories larger than Japan, with an area of 9,000 square meters and a monthly output of 45 tons.