Plenty intends to use LED light to grow organic vegetables in China

Plenty Inc, a US indoor agribusiness company, is looking for land for its new farm in Chinese cities as part of the company's global effort to build high-tech facilities that use LED lighting to grow organic plants in warehouses.

Plenty CEO Matt Barnard told Reuters on Wednesday that China could own at least 300 such large farms. Supporters behind the company are Amazon and the Japanese technology investment firm SoftBank.

Barnard said at present, the company is hiring employees in China, and in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen to find the right place and distributor. According to Barnard, the company has hired a team in Japan and "locked in" some farm sites there.

He did not reveal the company's expansion financial or investment objectives. Plenty currently operates only one farm in San Francisco and the other will open in Seattle in the first half of 2018.

In 2014, Bernard founded Plenty with agricultural scientist Nate Storey, who had previously founded another indoor agribusiness startup. Plenty said it can grow more crops in the same space than its competitors and consume less water because Plenty 'crops are fed by gravity rather than watering. Bernard said: "Because we grow crops according to the laws of physics, we save a lot of money."

Plenty's networking system delivers specific levels of light, air, moisture and nutrients based on the type of crop grown. Plenty claims the company produces 350% more of its crops in the same area than just 1% of its traditional farm.