Market Overview

Domestic agriculture has long been said about the shortage of workers and successors as well as the difficulty in keeping stable revenues at farmers. In addition to this, the recent higher consciousness in food safety and security has made consumers to ask for produce with fewer chemicals, which needs more cost.

In such a situation, hydroponics has been drawing attention as one of the solutions. As hydroponics prevents replant failure stemming from bad weathers or diseases, it enables planting and cultivation at those regions regarded as inappropriate for cultivation due to geographic environment, and dispenses with labor such as plowing using equipment and machinery, herbicidal, soil sterilization, etc., which saves labor. It also enables year-round culture that improves production efficiency per unit area, and keeps the freshness of the produce when shipped.

The domestic hydroponics systems market in 2021 generated 9,251 million yen, 97.5% of the size of the previous year, based on the shipment values at system manufacturers. The market size in 2022 is likely to be 8,928 million yen, 96.5% of that of previous year.

Noteworthy Topics

Necessity of Protected Horticulture Using Renewable Energy

Protected horticulture producers are in the situation where they cannot produce stably unless they reduce running cost. Especially, the energy cost including expenses for fuel oil, electricity, etc. have been soaring, so that stable and inexpensive supply of energy is the urgent matter to be solved. 

To solve the issue, promotion of circulation-oriented protected horticulture that use renewable energy (solar power, waste heat from factories, woody biomass, hot-spring heat, earth thermal) is needed. In particular, the cases of using wooden biomass and waste heat emitted from cleaning factories for cultivation at protected horticulture have been increasing.

In order to spread renewable energy in the agricultural field including protected horticulture, municipalities need to take initiatives to build circulation-oriented energy supply systems using renewable energy by collaborating with agricultural material manufacturers, plant equipment manufacturers, and producers of farm produce.

Future Outlook

The domestic hydroponics systems market is expected to decline from 2022 to 2023 on a YoY basis, due to soaring cost for production at protected horticulture. After 2024 the market is projected to increase slightly. Skyrocketing prices for chemical fertilizers and the “Measures for achievement of Decarbonization and Resilience with Innovation (MeaDRI)” by MAFF, proposing the reduction of 30% of chemical fertilizer use by 2050, are likely to further discourage the use of chemical fertilizers. Such a trend is expected to gather attention of, and spread hydroponics systems as a technology to reduce the amount of chemical fertilizers applied.

On the other hand, solid media cultivation, that have long driven the market, has increased the adoptions mainly at newcomers to farming for growing fruit vegetables such as tomatoes, but the system manufacturers in the market are likely to focus on leafy vegetables such as lettuces, as a new application exploration.

Research Outline