The owner of this magic greenhouse is Guo Lei, who used to be a diplomat in the Chinese embassy in Israel and was responsible for promoting bilateral trade. He started the construction of the 15,000 square meters vegetable greenhouse in 2015.
He got to know the hydroponic greenhouse technology while in Israel, and he was very impressed. In order to better communicate with local technicians and businessmen in Israel to promote the high-tech planting technology, Guo Lei mastered Hebrew and became the only diplomat in the embassy who can communicate in Hebrew. However, the introduction of hydroponic cultivation of greenhouse technology was very costly and its prospects were not yet very clear. That's why domestic enterprises were reluctant to invest. But for Mr. Guo Lei, this was a very good business opportunity." Israel has established its high technology in agriculture plantation, but China is still undergoing the industrial transformation."
In 2015, Guo Lei returned to Weifang city and built the hydroponic greenhouse together with his partner from Israel. The high technology systems, such as water treatment systems, automated water irrigation, and nutrient configuration systems, were installed and established here. For him growing vegetables is like raising a baby. They provide not only tailor-made nutrient solutions according to the needs of each vegetable variety, but also conduct a physical examination regularly. Moreover, the fertilizer system can even inspect a number of nutrient solutions automatically to find out which nutrient is needed. All these efforts guarantee the quality of growing vegetables.
This hypodronic greenhouse covers a cultivation area of 15,000 square meters, which is further divided into 5 small greenhouses. Three greenhouses are planted with green vegetables and two others with tomatoes and strawberries, thanks to the introduction of Dutch and British plantation techniques. In general the whole management process needs only 4 people. However, after one year's plantation, Mr. Guo was still losing money, despite the fact that the growth efficiency was 18 seasons per year.
The most expensive investment came from those imported equipments. Taking the mechanical arm as one example, its cost amounts to around one third of the per square meter investment, which is around 2,000 Yuan. During the production process, Mr. Guo also discovered that some automation equipment was not as functional as he expected. Thus reducing costs for the hydroponic greenhouse becomes a top priority.
Through the matching with the traditional Chinese winter greenhouse, Mr. Guo built his greenhouse by successfully combining Israel technology with traditional Chinese rural greenhouse practices, according to the actual needs. As a result, its orginal yields and quality remain, but its cost reduces to around 80% compared with the original sunshine greenhouses, and its per square meter cost is reduced from 2,000 Yuan to over 400 Yuan only. This guarantees his profitability significantly.
In the future, Mr. Guo hopes that he can rent these profitable greenhouses to farmers who specialize in vegetable plantation, so that he can focus on providing plantation technologies and sales channels. By doing so, he can improve the vegetable growers' yield quality and quantity to further increase their income, while at the same time contributing to the transformation of the Chinese agriculture industry.
Source: China Financial Report
Through the matching with the traditional Chinese winter greenhouse, Mr. Guo built his greenhouse by successfully combining Israel technology with traditional Chinese rural greenhouse practices, according to the actual needs. As a result, its orginal yields and quality remain, but its cost reduces to around 80% compared with the original sunshine greenhouses, and its per square meter cost is reduced from 2,000 Yuan to over 400 Yuan only. This guarantees his profitability significantly.
In the future, Mr. Guo hopes that he can rent these profitable greenhouses to farmers who specialize in vegetable plantation, so that he can focus on providing plantation technologies and sales channels. By doing so, he can improve the vegetable growers' yield quality and quantity to further increase their income, while at the same time contributing to the transformation of the Chinese agriculture industry.
Source: China Financial Report