29A

·     Opportunity:

-      Massive flooding along the Missouri river has affected the states of Missouri, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, and Mississippi. Texas alone has been hit with 140 tornados thus far in 2019. Tropical storm Barry has flooded crops in the southern region of the U.S. These are just a few of the natural disasters that have occurred in 2019. With the effects of global warming extreme weather is becoming a more common phenomenon. One of the largest industries these disasters are affecting is farming. Farmers are having a difficult time producing enough yields to sell at market. This is causing the price of produce to gradually increase and many farmers to go out of business.

-      This shortage of crops has created on opportunity for an alternative method to farming in order to meet the needs of fresh produce to individuals all around the United States. 

-      The targeted market for Hydro Market is environmentally conscientious individuals in their early thirties and up who live in suburban or metropolitan areas. 

-      Customers are currently satisfying their need for fresh produce with local farmers markets and higher end grocery stores such as Whole Foods and Lucky’s. I believe they are fairly loyal to these businesses because there really are not many alternatives to them that offer equal quality to meet their produce needs. 

-      The opportunity is huge especially in states with shorter growing seasons. Currently, on the shelves in these produce sections you see far less supply and a decline in the quality of the crops. Thus far there are no large-scale farming alternatives able to meet the needs of a changing environment. 

-      The window of opportunity will eventually be closing out of necessity to produce enough crops to feed the United States. As we face more and more natural disasters in our country and as farm after farm fails to bounce back from these effects, more farming businesses will need to switch to a more sustainable approach that will combat the effects of climate change.

·     Innovation:

-      Hydro Market will be selling fresh produce grown year-round on site. We will also be growing our crops in a much more sustainable environmentally friendly manor by eliminating the need for farming equipment and transportation of goods thereby reducing our CO2 emissions. Hydro Market will use ten percent less water at each of our facilities than traditional farming due to the fact that there is no wasteful runoff because our crops do not need to be watered daily sense they are grown in contained tanks of water. Instead of fertilizers we would be using recycled waste from fish to provide nutrients to our plants through a filtration system and series of tanks, known as aquaponics, thereby furthering our self-efficiency and sustainability efforts while eliminating the costs of purchasing fertilizers from a supplier. No soil is required which means none of our crops would be depleting the land of nutrients. We would also be a pesticide free farming facility sense our plants would be protected from insects by being grown in an in closed area. Hydro Market requires far less space by growing our crops vertically rather than horizontally like traditional farms. 

-      Price range will be above market value for each crop produced because we will be guaranteeing freshness. Market value does differ from season to season so we will have to pay close attention to price in order to make a profit. We will achieve freshness by only harvesting what is needed on a day to day basis. This means we will need to pay close attention to our sales per item on a monthly basis so we can account for any fluctuations thereby reducing our waste.  

·     Venture concept: 

-      We are selling a product of higher caliber than your average produce store while also selling an experience and piece of mind. All of the benefits to the environment our business has to offer sell our customers the peace of mind that by supporting a company such as this they are helping contribute to a better future for our planet and our children’s children.  

-      The competitors in this market are obviously any type of traditional farmer. In particular, farmers who grow genetically modified plants (GMO) are a competitor to worry about because the plants require less water and fertilizer making them better for the environment. They are also drought resistant and require less use of pesticide. Due to the fact That Hydro Market is also a store we would have direct competition with high end grocery store chains such as Whole Food’s and Lucky’s.

-      Even though GMO farmers mirror much of what hydroponic farming has to offer there are still a few areas we would surpass them in such as a farm to table experience, reduction of CO2 emissions by the elimination of transportation and farming equipment. There weakness would be that they would still be susceptible to losing crops from flooding. The high-end grocery stores that I mentioned have a weakness with their supply of produce. They rely on importing either from foreign or domestic areas when the produce they are selling is out of season in the local area. This can cause there to be either a shortage in supply or a lack in quality depending on how long it takes the goods to arrive and be marketed for sale. 

-      Quality of produce and peace of mind would be the main reasons Hydro Market would cause shoppers to change their loyalties to the established grocery stores. 

-      The packaging of our products would be minimal if any. Our entire mission is to lower our environmental impact while creating a sustainable future for farming. With that being said we will sell reusable ecofriendly containers as well as reusable bags for transporting produce. Because our products will not have fancy wasteful packaging the way we will attract and catch the eye of our customers will be through our store design, picture modern industrial meets farm house. The Hydroponic tanks themselves will be shown on one of our walls so customers can see the stages of production as well as the cleanliness of our facilities. This enables them to have an interactive experience when shopping with us as well as a way to create dialog between employees and customers which will only further our customers respect for what we are trying to accomplish. 

-      Employees will all be trained in the basic understanding of how hydroponic farming works as well as what our company has and is doing for the environment. They will all be able to answer customers questions pertaining to these matters in order to show that each and every person involved with our business cares about what they are doing. We will have 1 hydroponic agriculture specialists on staff, 2 store managers, 20 employees for harvesting/maintaining the tanks, 20 employees for cash registers and cleaning the store. These numbers would be per location and I would have the employees who are on the floor and in the back train together so that each understands what their roles are as well as allowing me to interchange positions if need be. 

·     Summary of Feedback:

-      I received nothing but positive feedback with my venture concept and what’s next exercise. My peers really appreciated that Hydro Market strives to achieve self-efficiency from how our produce is grown to how our store is operated. It is really nice to hear that people believe this could leave a long-lasting impact on farming. 

·     What I changed:

Based off of the feedback I received, I decided to include aquaponics technology from the inception of the Hydro Market store as opposed to introducing it later. I chose to add this because it further highlights our self-efficiency/sustainability, as well as it being much easier and less costly to implement from the start rather than to have to redesign our tanks and filtrati