Hydroponics Market Size, Share, Trend, Market Research and Industry Forecast Report, 2025 (Includes Business Impact of COVID-19)

                                          
Industry Insights, Market Size, CAGR, High-Level Analysis: Hydroponics Market


The global hydroponics market size was valued at USD 1.33 billion in 2018 and is anticipated to expand at the CAGR of 22.52% from 2019 to 2025. This high growth rate is attributed to the increasing use of hydroponic systems for indoor farming of vegetables. Also, the adoption of alternative farming methods for cannabis cultivation is rapidly rising, owing to the legalization of marijuana in countries like Canada, Czech Republic, South Africa, and others. Increasing awareness among consumers regarding the effects of pesticides and artificial ripening agents over their health is expected to drive the demand for hydroponics, as the method eliminates the need of such products, thereby providing nutritionally superior vegetables. Low installation cost and ease of operation of these systems is also expected to boost the adoption in near future.

Hydroponic farming is a method of growing plants without soil, where the soil is replaced by a mineral solution inserted around the plant roots. Herein, the plant roots are submerged under the chemical solution and checked periodically to ensure that appropriate chemical composition is maintained for growth. As such, the hydroponics method removes the risk of diseased that are caused by soil organisms. Additionally, the hydroponically grown plants produce a higher yield than similar plants grown in soil because of proper control over the nutrients.
The rising population is increasing the demand for food across the world. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations (UN), the world population is expected to reach up to 9.1 billion by 2050, for which the food production is expected to increase from between 25% to 70%. This is anticipated to drive the demand for alternative farming technologies that give high yields in less time. The regions, such as Asia Pacific and Europe, where the arable land and water is becoming scarce, is witnessing increasing adoption of alternative high-yield farming technologies, which in turn is expected to boost the market growth.

Advancements in climate control, nutrient film technique, and sensing technologies among others is expected to bode well for the market growth in near future. Hydroponics farming solution providers offer consumers various ways to monitor and manage their crops with numerous sensors, web platforms, software, and mobile applications. For instance, the company SmartBee Technology, Inc. offers irrigation controls, water and nutrient sensors, environmental sensors, as well as software that provide real-time control to the farmers. The advanced approach of using IoT is enables automatic and remote data collection and monitoring. Owing to such technological advancements in hydroponics solutions, the market is expected to grow at a significant pace from 2019 to 2025.

Crops Insights

Based on crops, the hydroponics market has been segmented into tomatoes, lettuce, peppers, cucumbers, herbs, and others. The other segment includes plants, such as cannabis, berries, fruits, and leafy vegetables. Tomatoes segment held more than 30% of the total market share in 2018. They are the largest hydroponically cultivated crops across the globe owing to faster cultivation rate and as it requirement of very less amount of water compared to regular farmed tomatoes. The indoor farmers use rock wool, perlite, or coconut coir as growing materials for tomato hydroponic cultivation. Europe and Asia Pacific regions are estimated to cultivate the most substantial amount of tomatoes through the hydroponic method by 2025.

Leafy vegetables, such as spinach, arugula, kale, and lettuce are increasingly gaining popularity among the hydroponic growers. Among these, green and red leaf lettuce is the largest hydroponically grown vegetable among indoor farmers owing to its raw consumption in relatively large quantities. The hydroponic cultivation of lettuce is rising in North America on account of its rising demand from households and fast-food chains across the region. The global market size for lettuce is estimated to register the fastest CAGR of more than 25% over the forecast period.

Type Insights of Hydroponics Market

Based on type, the market has been sub-segmented into aggregate systems and liquid systems. The aggregate systems held the largest market share in 2018 owing to its widespread popularity among all the indoor hydroponic farmers owing to its ease of setup and inexpensiveness. In such systems, an inert and solid media such as peat, rock wool, vermiculite, sand, sawdust, perlite, or coconut coir provides support for the plants. The primary technologies in aggregate systems include drip systems, ebb and flow system, and wick systems. Out of these, the ebb and flow is the most common mode of an aggregate system that is preferred as it is easy and economically cheap to build.

The liquid systems segment is estimated to expand at the fastest CAGR from 2019 to 2025, owing to the increasing popularity of closed system cultivation among the growers. Deepwater culture and Nutrient Film Technique (NFT) systems are being increasingly used to cultivate lettuce and other leafy vegetables. Liquid systems eliminate the use of a solid medium, and the roots are directly submerged in the nutrient solution, therefore, making the cultivation process easier. Moreover, as the nutrients are directly provided to the roots of a plant, liquid systems expedite the growth, thereby giving maximum yields. While the soilless farming methods mitigate the risk of soilborne diseases, the risk of dispersal of pathogens increases by recirculating nutrient solutions in the closed systems. Thus, to avoid this, the liquid systems require frequent maintenance for monitoring and changing nutrient solutions.

Regional Insights of Hydroponics Market

Asia Pacific held the largest market share in 2018 owing to the substantial adoption of hydroponics in China, Australia, South Korea, and other such countries. The market in China and India is expected to escalate significantly over the forecast period owing to the emerging urban hydroponic farms. North America holds a high potential of growth on account of numerous companies located in the region, as well as owing to the growing adoption of alternative farming techniques in urban areas. Some of the prominent market players in North America include AeroFarms (U.S.), AMHYDRO (U.S.), Argus Control Systems Limited (Canada), and LumiGrow (U.S.).

Europe held the second largest market share in 2018, owing to high adoption of hydroponics driven by rapid industrialization and scarcity of land. Europe is home to developed economies, such as France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain, and Netherlands. In 2010, the European Environment Agency (EEA) encouraged building vertical farms for overcoming the challenges of climate change and producing food in a more environmentally-friendly way, which boosted the regional market growth. On account of growing expansion of genetically-modified crop technology, the region is also anticipated to witness a substantial CAGR over the forecast period. However, the lack of government incentives and unavailability of essential equipment to set up large hydroponic farms is expected to hinder the growth in developing countries from Middle East, Africa, and South America.

Market Share Insights of Hydroponics Market

Key market participants are AeroFarms (U.S.); AMHYDRO (U.S.); Argus Control Systems Limited (Canada); Emirates Hydroponics Farms (UAE); Freight Farms (U.S.); Green Sense Farms Holdings, Inc. (U.S.); Heliospectra AB (Sweden); LumiGrow (U.S.); Signify Holding (the Netherlands); and Terra Tech Corp (U.S.). These companies, along with other market players, are focusing on strategic geographic expansions through mergers and acquisitions across the market. For instance, in February 2019, Grow Generation, a U.S.-based hydroponic equipment provider, acquired a California-based Palm Springs Hydroponics company. Through this transaction, Grow Generation expanded its operations to become a leading supplier in the most populated cannabis retail market of California. The market players are continually investing in R&D to develop different products and solutions to stay ahead of the competition.

Segmentations, Sub Segmentations, CAGR, & High-Level Analysis overview of Hydroponics Market Research Report
This report forecasts revenue growth at global, regional, and country levels and provides an analysis of the latest industry trends and opportunities in each of the sub-segments from 2014 to 2025. For the purpose of this study, this market research report has segmented the global hydroponics market report based on type, crops, and region:

Type Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2019 - 2030)

  
Aggregate Systems
  
Liquid Systems

Crops Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2019 - 2030)

  
Tomatoes
  
Lettuce
  
Peppers
  
Cucumbers
  
Herbs
  
Others