Kagome Co., Ltd. and NEC Corporation will establish DXAS Agricultural Technology, a joint venture in Portugal to provide farming support for processed tomatoes using AI. Establishment is scheduled for July of this year.
The new company will contribute to sustainable agriculture in countries around the world by promoting environmentally friendly and profitable farming through the integration of Kagome’s agronomies and NEC’s technologies.
The production of processed tomatoes is expected to continue expanding in line with population growth and economic growth, particularly in emerging countries. However, for sustainable tomato cultivation, we need to address a variety of issues, such as responding to a decline in producers and reducing environmental impact.
In 2015, Kagome and NEC began technological development and business verification of farming advice using AI with the aim of realizing environmentally friendly and highly profitable farming. Since then, the companies have begun conducting demonstration tests in Portugal, Spain, Australia, the United States, and are currently expanding business in 7 additional countries.
In April 2020, we signed a strategic partnership agreement. With the Smart Agri Division, an organization newly established within Kagome under the direct control of top management, the two companies used NEC’s AI-enabled agricultural ICT platform, CropScope, to further improve the functions and quality of farming advice, as well as to study the marketing and future potential of farming support businesses.
We recently decided to expand business with the launch of a new company, aiming to further accelerate technological development and strengthen sales activities in the farming support business.
By further combining Kagome’s knowledge of tomato farming with NEC’s AI-based analytical and forecasting technologies, we will accelerate farming support mainly in the processed tomato markets of Europe, the Americas, and Australia.
“We believe that our business, through CropScope, will help realize both environmental sustainability and profitable farming while fulfilling the promise of farmers, like us at Kagome, to contribute toward people’s health through the nutritional value and delicious taste of tomatoes,” said Yoshihide Watanabe, Director & Senior Managing Executive Officer, Kagome. “This Business will help realize environmentally conscious and profitable tomato farming, along with the social value of supporting our customers’ food and health, leading to growth of our new company and Kagome.”
“In the face of a challenging global environment characterized by global warming, climate change, soil pollution, and soaring prices for water and fertilizers, we have continued to develop solutions with Kagome, aiming to provide value to production sites and food safety by utilizing AI and other advanced technologies,” said Osamu Fujikawa, Executive Vice President and CFO, NEC Corporation. “Going forward, NEC will work with the new company and Kagome to provide direct value to society through NEC technologies that contribute to food production and agriculture worldwide.”
