Japanese to open giant lettuce farm run by robots

A Japanese company is starting construction of a giant lettuce “farm” which will be run almost exclusively by robots, cutting its labour requirements by half.

The development highlights the potential for new technology to transform agricultural practices, particularly in countries struggling with labour shortages. 

Spread, a vegetable company, which supplies more than 2,000 supermarkets in Japan, already operates a plant producing 21,000 head of lettuce a day at Kameoka in Kyoto.

It has emerged the company will shortly start construction on a plant at Keihanna, producing 30,000 head of lettuce a day, where every part of its operation other than the planting of the seed will be carried out by robots.

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The plant, billed as the world’s “first fully automated, large-scale vegetable factory”, is expected to be operational by summer 2017.

The company claims it is leading the way in the “next generation” of vegetable production and it plans that in five years it will have expanded to produce 500,000 head of lettuce a day to supply both domestic and international markets.

According to Spread, using robots to completely automate the cultivation process from seeding through to harvest will reduce labour costs by 50%.

The robots will raise the seedlings, transplant them, look after them through all growth stages and then harvest them ready for packing.

Its current factory employees 50 workers, but the new one will only need 25.

The company has also developed low-cost LED lighting systems that are specialised for plant factories.

These lights use less energy which will cut power consumption by 30% in the new factory.