The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) forecasts that the global population will stand at 8.6 billion by 2030, 9.8 billion by 2050, and 11.2 billion by 2100. Half of the global population growth will be concentrated in India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Ethiopia, Uganda, Indonesia, the U.S.A., the United Republic of Tanzania, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The rising global population is creating a huge requirement for food products, owing to which, several countries are focusing on greenhouse and indoor farming techniques to amplify their agricultural produce.
Thus, the increasing shift toward greenhouse farming along with the soaring popularity of vertical farming will help the horticulture lighting market to register a CAGR of 18.1% during 2020–2030. The market was valued at $3.2 billion in 2019 and it is expected to generate $20.3 billion revenue by 2030. The scarcity of arable land, on account of the booming population, is encouraging the agriculture community to opt for vertical farming techniques, which are highly beneficial to the environment due to their low requirement for water and soil.
At present, farmers are using horticulture lights such as top lighting and interlighting systems in greenhouse farming and vertical farming setups as an energy source. In recent years, the agriculture community has been preferring top lighting over interlighting systems for illuminating indoor and vertical farming setups. Both these horticulture lighting systems primarily use light-emitting diode (LED) lights to provide an adequate intensity of light to promote plant growth, thereby leading to high production levels. Additionally, such lighting systems also use high-intensity discharge (HID) and fluorescent lights to boost the growth of fruits, vegetables, and flowers in greenhouse farming chambers.
To meet the rising need for enhanced lighting systems in vertical and greenhouse horticulture chambers, owing to the burgeoning demand for fruits, vegetables, and flowers, light manufacturing companies are focusing on product launches. For example, in October 2019, Illumitex Inc. introduced the NeoPAR-XO LED for horticulture. This LED is equipped with artificial intelligence (AI) platform which allows farmers to track crop development through an integrated camera. This lighting solution emits an output of 1,820 photosynthetic photon flux (PPF) and has an efficiency of 2.6 μmol/J.
According to P&S Intelligence, Europe led the horticulture lighting market in the past and it is expected to retain its dominance in the coming years as well. This is because the region is the highest producer and exporter of vegetables, fruits, and flowers. Moreover, the presence of horticulture lighting system manufacturers, such as Signify N.V., Heliospectra AB, and Osram Licht AG, will also propel the demand for such lights in the region in the coming years.
Whereas, Asia-Pacific (APAC) is expected to utilize horticulture lights at the highest rate in the forthcoming years. This will be due to the rising need for agriculture products, owing to the robust surge in the population and disposable income of people in the region. For instance, according to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) +6 population forecast, the population of Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam will reach 284 million, 127 million, and 103 million, respectively, by 2030. Furthermore, the report also states that the population of India and China is growing at the per annum rates of 1.08% and 0.16%, respectively.
Thus, the burgeoning demand for fruits, flowers, and vegetables and the rising popularity of vertical farming will augment the need for horticulture lighting systems in the forthcoming years.
