How to turn urban farming into a viable business?
Challenge
Coastal restoration in Bintan could generate significant environmental, social and economic value, but those funding the initiative would not automatically benefit from its returns.
Boost
Together with Witteveen+Bos, we mapped investor needs, barriers, and opportunities. We looked at how ecological benefits like flood protection, biodiversity, eco-tourism and carbon capture could connect to social and financial value.
A clear route to funding, showing whom to approach and with what proposition, while enabling the first coastal restoration activities to begin.
Outcome
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Capabilities
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Stakeholder and ecosystem mapping
Investors insights discovery -
Value proposition design
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Business model design
About the case:
The Singapore Food Agency has set a bold target to locally produce 30% of the nation's nutritional needs by 2030. To achieve this ambitious goal, we focused on market validation and developing new and improved value propositions for urban farming.
Growing potential
A Dutch-Singaporean consortium initiated the construction of a cutting-edge indoor farm in Singapore. It used the latest technology in hydronics, lighting, and ventilation. This farm, serving as a proof of concept, aimed for regional expansion upon successful validation.
However, the primary hurdle in our path was the need to tackle high costs and navigate a limited market demand. To realize the expansion goals of The Singapore Food Agency we had to overcome this challenge.
Navigating questions
We started off by validating the market opportunity and crafting compelling propositions for a large urban farm in Singapore by engaging in three collaborative and validating sprints. In the initial session, we gathered relevant insights from consumers and chefs to understand their priorities concerning local products.
Blooming propositions
In the second sprint, we delved deeper into these insights. Based on those insights we could develop directions for fitting propositions. We validated the propositions with 250 consumers and 50 F&B professionals.
Quantifying ventures
Finally, we explored the willingness to pay. We explored various business model scenarios, including which proposition has the most potential to make the concept of urban farming successful. And we estimated quantified business opportunities such as market size and business cases to meet the needs of our rapidly growing population.
Together, we've crafted a robust and validated (brand) story based on our insights into consumers and chefs and their preferences for locally produced food. We've identified the initial product for successful sales and developed a proven business model currently implemented in Singapore, ensuring sustainable growth and impact now, in 2023, and beyond.