No.3638
11/15/2024

Solution Culture System Market in Japan: Key Research Findings 2024

Solution Culture System Market Size Forecast to Grow 100.7% from Previous Year to \8,059 Million in 2024

Yano Research Institute (the President, Takashi Mizukoshi) has surveyed horticulture in Japan and found out the trends by category, trends of market players, and future market outlook. Here discusses the solution culture system market.


Transition and Forecast of Solution Culture System Market Size by Method
Transition and Forecast of Solution Culture System Market Size by Method

Market Overview

In recent years, the agricultural industry in Japan has faced problems such as a shortage of farmers and their successors, and unstable income for agricultural producers. In addition, they also have problems with the rising cost of growing produce with less use of chemicals due to higher consumer consciousness on food safety and security.
As a solution to these problems, solution cultivation is spreading. By preventing replanting failure caused by a soil-borne pathogen, solution cultivation allows crops to be grown in the location that used to be a geographically unsuitable area for cultivation and eliminates the labor of plowing, weeding, and soil disinfection, thus reducing labor hours. Furthermore, year-round cultivation has become possible, expanding the production volume through labor efficiency.

The domestic solution culture system market, based on the shipment value of system manufacturers, has declined to 8,006 million yen in 2023, 92.4% of the previous year. This is because of the difficulty of additional capital investment by existing manufacturers, due to the rise in prices of various materials, which also increases product prices.
In 2024, as the rise in material prices has somewhat eased and as the capital investment by new entrants can be expected, the market is projected to reach 8,059 million yen, 100.7% of the size of the previous year.

Noteworthy Topics

Ongoing Initiatives for Green Agriculture

The Strategy for Sustainable Food Systems, MIDORI, led by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF), sets the goal of completely converting facilities that never use fossil fuels by 2050. As a part of this effort, MAFF has decided to implement “Cross Compliance (CC)” for all the subsidized enterprises from FY2027. This will be on trial from FY2024 and will require subsidy recipients to make efforts to reduce environmental burdens.
There have been many cases of horticultural equipment manufacturers, related material manufacturers, and food companies applying for certification of their green plans under the MIDORI Strategy, thus increasing the number of approved plans in the horticultural sector. This indicates that many agricultural producers, horticultural equipment manufacturers, and related material manufacturers are implementing the government-led green agricultural initiative. This trend of environmental initiatives in agriculture driven by agricultural policies is expected to continue.

Future Outlook

The size of the solution culture system market is forecast to reach 8,743 million yen in 2025, 101.0% of the size of the previous year. The market is expected to grow at a stable growth rate, as the material price rise is projected to subside, which is likely to promote the adoption of solution culture systems especially among newcomers, due to their ease of use despite high initial investment.
In addition, solution culture systems offer fertilizer control, which enables the appropriate amount of fertilizer to be applied to plants, thereby reducing fertilizer waste. This is especially true when the solution recirculation system is widely used for hydroponics and solid media culture. As this is related to the reduction of chemical fertilizers, one of the goals of the MIDORI Strategy, research and development of new technologies in this area will continue, while the adoption of solution culture systems by agricultural producers is likely to increase further.  

Research Outline

1.Research Period: April to September 2024
2.Research Object: Manufacturers of materials used for protected horticulture such as polytunnels, solution culture system, complex environment control equipment, horticulture heat pumps, light sources for growing plants, covering materials (agricultural films), agricultural ICT, liquid fertilizer, polytunnel covers, agricultural shading agent/thermal insulator, related organizations, government agencies, etc.
3.Research Methogology: Face-to-face interviews (including online) by specialized researchers, survey via telephone/email, and literature research

About Solution Culture System Market

Solution culture is the method of growing produce without soil, but with fertilizer dissolved in water (e.g., solution). Of the solution culture systems, hydroponics is the method of growing plants in or on the surface of the solution without a medium. Solid media culture is the method of growing plants on various types of solid media that replace soil. Solution culture using soil as a medium is the method that does not require fertilizer at the time of seeding and provides liquid fertilizer simultaneously with water irrigation. (Source: Hydroponic Society of Japan)

The solution culture system market in this research has included equipment for solution culture systems, and has targeted fruit crops, green vegetables, root vegetables, and flowers as the crops grown by the above methods of the solution culture system. The market size was calculated based on the shipment value of manufacturers.

<Products and Services in the Market>

Solution Culture System

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