Agrician Hong Kong

This interview details Agrician, a Hong-Kong based vertical farming company. The interview is with Jack Leung, Founder of Agrician.

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What is the origin story of Agrician? ‍

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Our story started in 2021, we found a spot in Fo Tan, Hong Kong which was previously an  abandoned bicycle warehouse and I used to work in this neighborhood too therefore I  always passed by the warehouse. It made me wonder if we could turn this space into  something else, something worth doing, like an urban farm. As the idea started to grow in  my mind, I put the idea into actions and renovated the abandoned warehouse turning it  into a modern farm. 

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Agrician is a word I created from combining Agriculture and Magician, and we called the  farm “THE FARM CLUB by Agrician”, we wanted to not only build a farm but also a space  for community where we can meet, learn, connect and innovate together like a club. In this  concept farm, we showcased that an indoor farm can integrate into even a highly  urbanized area like the industrial building where we located. And since we have started the  project, many people who live and work around the neighborhood also started to know us  and talk to us. It serves as a bridge between food and people in the city in which I believe  is essential in a healthy community and food system. 

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What are some of the biggest challenges facing Agrician in the future? ‍

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The biggest challenge we are facing is we have to be not only efficient in growing crops  and we have to be efficient in selling the crops because at the end of the day people are  buying the greens and eating greens rather than buying your story and technology.  

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And for any agricultural products especially leafy greens, they are very perishable, we  have to keep up on the sale, otherwise it will cause food waste and also financial loss. For  that, we will be more focus on bringing the products to consumers efficiently and making  the products more accessible in the market for future development. 

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What is unique about Agrician compared to competitors?  ‍

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In Agrician, we believe we are not just a food producer, we are also modern farmer that will  connect with people and create extra values to the community. We are the only indoor  farm in Hong Kong that provides veggie subscription service to consumers, in this way, we  can directly communicate with our consumers to make sure we grow products that they  enjoy eating and they have access to ask us any kinds of questions about our produce. 

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And from time to time, we work with different organizations like school to host educational  workshop about urban farming. We believe when people have more knowledge about their  food and the food system, they can make a better choice on food for their health and also  for the environment. 

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How do you measure the impact of your company so far? (Revenue, Employees,  Customer Quantity, Production Volume) etc? ‍

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For the impact of Agrician, I would say we have make many connections in the local  community in which many people who met us showed a lot of appreciations on our work  and they found that this project is very inspirational to them. I think the empowerment of  people is the greatest impact we made so far in the community. And until now, I and my  other team members are still passionate about our work and working hard towards our  vision of building better communities via urban farming.

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What have you learned that you wish you knew when you joined or started the  company? ‍

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What I wish I knew when I started the company is farming business, any kinds of farming  no matter it is traditional farming or vertical farming, the nature of farming is about serving  people and communities, technology is just an useful tool to help you do better on that.  This realization can help you find many answers in simplicity in an easier way. 

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How can people connect with you or learn more about Agrician? ‍

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Website: www.agrician.com

Instagram @agrician‍

Email: jack@agrician.com

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Thank you for reading.

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