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Bankruptcy in Soilless Farming: Clean Greens and Growy Singapore Fall · Hydroponics Daily

• 0:00
  Hello and welcome back to Hydroponics Daily, your go-to podcast for everything soilless cultivation.
• 0:05
  I'm your host, Dr. Russell Sharp, the founder of Utrema Limited.
• 0:09
  We make interesting fertilizers, novel biostimulants, and organic biopesticides.
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  And on today's episode, I'm going to talk about two sad businesses that have
• 0:20
  gone out of business, filed for bankruptcy,
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  and gone liquidation so
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  whatever the actual financial official term
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  is the first one is an aeroponic company from
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  switzerland and it's called clean greens so they
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  develop technology for aeroponics and large-scale
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  aeroponic systems and only recently
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  did they in early 2025 signed an
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  investment agreement for 50 million swiss francs intended
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  to provide the capital necessary to stabilize and expand operations however
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  the investor ultimately failed to deliver on the promised funding and without
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  that financial support the company was unable to execute its strategic plan
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  and avoid over indebtedness situation so basically they they ran out of money
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  so they filed for bankruptcy and there's going to be layoffs so it's sad news
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  for everyone employed there.
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  I would imagine they'll try and sell their technology i guess
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  they're a competitor again with like lettuce grow
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  and things companies like that so clean greens solutions they've
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  gone from the hydroponic sector another one to bite
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  the dust so unfortunately and then
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  a really surprising one you might remember that i went
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  on a tour of the growey facility in amsterdam
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  and said i was very impressed with their technological technological
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  setup but also the fact that they were not quite
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  self-funded but funded by a few investors and
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  then they were expanding to other locations around the world with local investment
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  partners to set up farms and take the technology
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  out there so it's surprising to see that the
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  growing singapore operation has gone into liquidation because sing a lot it's
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  often said that singapore has massive issue with importation of fresh produce
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  and the price of food is very high and so it's one of the few places where vertical
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  farmings can make money.
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  And Growy Singapore had a 8,000 square meter vertical farm near Changai airport
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  and it's gone into liquidation less than a year after its official opening which was November last year.
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  So that's really sad news. So let's look at the details of that.
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  So the Grohe company didn't actually set this farm up.
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  It was actually set up by Calera International, a US-based vertical farming
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  company that filed for bankruptcy themselves and sold its overseas operation.
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  So they took over the farm and received some government grants from the Singapore
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  government, but they couldn't attract enough local investment and strategic partners.
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  So ultimately it wasn't profitable and they succumbed to debt so it was the
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  most advanced farm in the region but just just the costs even then were just
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  too high and inefficient which is sad to hear gory continues their farm in amsterdam
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  and it's operating successfully.
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  And it's a highly automated and energy
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  efficient system so hopefully they can expand into
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  other areas and this is a blimp a blip in the
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  expansion of growy and hopefully a blip in the adoption
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  of hydroponics in singapore which of all
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  the countries around the world singapore seems to
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  be the the most open for adopting new
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  agricultural techniques and especially vertical farming and
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  hydroponics per capita there seems to be so many hydroponic
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  companies there it's crazy so really sad
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  because the sort of vertical farming commercially really
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  did sort of take out take off in in singapore
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  it's one of the very first countries to look at vertical farming so
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  sad to see a farm go out of business um on
• 4:01
  tomorrow's episode i'm going to be talking about coal tolerance especially cold
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  roots and a new coal tolerant tomato
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  variety that's been bred in spain which seems
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  crazy because you think could be bred in you know siberia
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  or northern canada but let's have
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  a look at that one tomorrow that's been hydroponics daily for today if you
• 4:20
  feel this is interesting if at all slightly sad then
• 4:23
  please do give an apple podcast review because it helps the podcast tremendously
• 4:27
  if you're not on apple don't bother leaving a review just click follow and also
• 4:30
  check out utreema.co.uk because if you are looking to boost yields in your hydroponic
• 4:35
  system we've got a whole range of biostimulants and amazing fertilisers for
• 4:40
  use in hydroponics that you won't find anywhere else.
• 4:43
  You won't find any comparable technology anywhere else in hydroponics anywhere
• 4:46
  close to this. So please check that out.
• 4:49
  Thank you very much for listening to my garbled message and episode today,
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  and I'll see you again tomorrow. Goodbye.