As LEDs continue to expand in the field of lighting, LEDs have taken a place in the field of plant lighting. Although the scale of application cannot be compared with ordinary commercial or home lighting, plant lighting, as a special application field of LED, has gradually gained market recognition due to its superiority, and market demand is also growing.
From 2010, Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation of Japan transformed large-scale containers into “plant factories” and used photosynthesis of crops with LED light sources. So far, the application of LED in the field of plant lighting has gradually begun.
In fact, many overseas LED companies have begun to deploy the plant lighting market, and competition is quietly taking place. After the establishment of the plant lighting factory by Philips LED, companies such as OSRAM and Yiguang have also made some moves in this field.
In comparison, LED is indeed very advantageous in the field of plant lighting because it is a cold light source with low heat generation characteristics. It is small in size and compact in structure, can illuminate plants at close range, improve the space utilization rate of plant cultivation, and can also improve The ability of plants to resist pests and diseases. Plant lighting mainly includes plant growth lamps and aquarium lamps. With the gradual maturity of production technology, LEDs have gradually been applied to various crop fields such as agricultural production, fruit and vegetable cultivation, and flower cultivation. Although this field is a new opportunity for LED lighting, it is still in its infancy in China.
Weak domestic market
In 2011, the output value of LED plant lighting in China was about 300 million yuan, of which more than 90% was exported. As of June 2012, there were about 40 LED plant lighting enterprises in China, most of which were concentrated in Shenzhen, Guangdong.
This scale is negligible relative to the entire LED industry. "In fact, LED plant lighting is difficult to promote in the domestic market. The important reason is that the overall price of LED is expensive.
Compared to ordinary LED lamps, plant lighting prices are relatively more expensive. If an 18W ordinary LED tube is sold for 80 yuan, then the same size of the plant lighting tube should be sold at least 240 yuan.
This is the case in the domestic market. There is no way to go. This has affected the production enthusiasm of domestic enterprises to a certain extent, and the price is even more difficult to fall. Nowadays, companies that do LED plant lighting in China are generally in poor sales.
In addition, technical difficulties are also an important factor leading to the slow development of LED plant lights in China.
For LED plant lighting, it is necessary to match the light source according to the plant species planted by the end customer. Different plants require different wavelengths of light at different growth stages. For example, a red wavelength of 620-630 NM can promote plant germination, while a blue wavelength of 450-460 NM is beneficial to plant growth.
Although the use of LEDs to illuminate plants has been shown to have a positive impact on plant growth, this is mainly left in the laboratory stage, and the actual application to actual production is not obvious. How to effectively use the efficacy of LED plant lighting needs to be summarized through a large number of scientific experiments and specific practices. For most companies in China, they obviously do not fully understand the specific requirements of plant lighting.
Difficulties in channel construction
Seizing the highest point of channel construction is a magic weapon for many companies to win. As far as traditional lighting is concerned, having stable and stable channel resources has always been their advantage. In the field of plant lighting, it is still traditional energy-saving lamps that dominate the market today. With LEDs, the cost is too high, and the corresponding equipment is needed. This is very stressful for us. The key is that there is no way to know how it works, or let's take a look. Mr. Lin, who has had 20 years of experience in vegetable cultivation, said this.
It is understood that the largest consumer group for plant cultivation is greenhouse growers. “Since the industry has realized the value of LED in plant cultivation, many companies want to share a piece of cake, and the market is very chaotic.” Shang Guolin, project leader of Shenzhen Federal Lighting Co., Ltd. complained to reporters that such market conditions forced customers to Taking the time to find the right product for you also affects their view of the entire LED industry.
Different from the scattered sales method in the ordinary home lighting market, the plant lighting customer group is relatively simple, but the transaction volume is large. Many companies generally only need to maintain a few fixed customers to ensure their survival.
From the point of view of sales, the purchase of LED plant lighting is generally old customers, the loyalty of these customers is very high, and the introduction of each other through word of mouth allows the company to accumulate a certain amount of customer resources.
This requires companies to continuously introduce products with outstanding advantages to establish a good reputation in the industry.
EMC mode can be promoted
China has a large population base and a large planting area. If LEDs can fully penetrate into the field of plant lighting, this will be a very large consumer market. In fact, consumers are not willing to use LEDs, it is important because their awareness is not enough.
Plant lighting generally has a large electricity range, long electricity consumption, and some even require twenty-four hours of lighting, which results in a large amount of electricity consumption. If the EMC model is promoted, the possibility of profitability is very large. At present, we do not use the EMC model, because the initial investment is too large, and a series of complex supporting services are needed in the later stage. However, if the government supports it, the EMC model can work in the field of plant lighting.
If LED is applied in the field of plant lighting, its energy saving effect will be enormous. At present, few companies have the ability to promote the EMC model alone, especially in terms of funding. I hope that the government can establish EMC's financing guarantee platform, and hope to get the support of the bank and provide us with more convenient financial services.
