Forget TVs. Sharp Sees a Future in Strawberry Farming

                                             

Might strawberries save a TV manufacturer?

Japanese technology company Sharp is to diversify its company offering into growing strawberries in the Middle East, by developing controlled environments that carefully tweak temperature, light and humidity. Japanese strawberries are sold for high prices in markets.The company has been working to develop factory scale technology that can cultivate strawberries at a facility in Sharp's Middle East Free Zone Establishment in Dubai, where it's very difficult to grow the fruit.

   
Sharp (6753:JP) made its name building televisions. But the company actually has its origins in mechanical pencils, and its future may rest on its ability to grow Japanese strawberries in the deserts of Dubai.

                         
As a consumer electronics company, Sharp is dying. Its business is increasingly made up of selling electronic components such as LCD displays and solar cells. This part of its business made up 46 percent of revenue in the fiscal year ended in March, up from about a third three years earlier. The relative growth in electronic components isn’t just because Sharp’s sales of consumer products are tanking—although they are. Sales are at record highs in every category of Sharp’s electronic-component business, and making strawberries is another way to continue that growth.
                                

While Sharp didn’t respond to a request to discuss its thinking, it seems clear that the strawberry operation in the Persian Gulf is to peddle more components. The strawberry facility is a hermetically sealed building stocked with Sharp’s own equipment. To control lighting, Sharp is using its LED technology. The company is also using something called Plasmacluster to kill germs, bacteria, mold—the same technology used in consumer products, as shown in this video of a Sharp air purifier reducing mold in bread. There’s additional technology to monitor room temperature and humidity, and Sharp says it will collect data on how well its cultivation techniques work to “achieve stable production of high-quality strawberries.” A big strawberry success for Sharp would be one of the most satisfying pivots in the history of tech.

Hydroponics Systems from Chicfarm LED grower, http://www.chicfarm.net