Exploring opportunities arising from controlled environment agriculture

Controlled environment agriculture (CEA), an indoor, technology-based approach towards cultivating crops under optimal growing conditions, is rapidly expanding in large part due to growing consumer demand for low environmental impact food, local food systems, and improved accessibility to high-quality produce with shorter supply chains. CEA encompasses not only the high investment momentum vertical farming sector but also the indoor cultivation of an ever increasing range of specialty crops for a range of applications from food to health. CEA systems are evolving to improve resource use efficiency while simultaneously optimizing crop yields and quality, but can often suffer from high costs of production due to technology and energy requirements. This report explores industry momentum across the CEA landscape and breaks down the technology requirements to identify regional opportunities.