N.THING, the multi-award-winning Seoul-based agri-tech company which recently launched operations in the UAE, has received recognition as an Honoree at the CES Innovation Awards for their groundbreaking "N.THING CUBE" – an indoor modular vertical farm that produces quality crops, saves energy, and creates a sustainable organic ecosystem. CUBE reduces food mileage and carbon footprints while innovating the supply value chain, promoting food security.
Initially founded in 1967, The CES Innovation Awards program is an annual competition honoring outstanding design and engineering in consumer technology products. Held annually in New York, "the program recognizes honorees in a multitude of consumer technology product categories and distinguishes the highest rated in each." There are two levels of recognition: ‘Honorees’ who score above the threshold for a given category, and ‘Best of Innovation,’ awarded for the highest-rated product(s) in each category, judged by highly respected experts including consumer technology industry designers, engineers and members of the media. CES Innovation Awards is the most significant tech event globally, which has recognized thousands of revolutionary inventions that have shaped civilization and transformed the world. It provides a platform for businesses to showcase their breakthrough technology and global innovations that may have an immense impact on the developing world.
N.THING’s decentralized farm solution leads to innovations in saving resources in three main categories: food miles, earth resources, and operational costs. The agritech company has been recognized by the CES Innovation Awards in the sustainability, eco-design, and smart energy product category for its ‘CUBE’, a modularized container vertical farm for hydroponic smart farming, which fully controls the growing environment of the produce, growth duration, and product quality with IoT technology and dedicated OS ("CUBE OS"). Not only are these CUBES the latest in innovation due to their farming capabilities, but the containers are easy to expand and build upon due to its stackability.
Harin Song, MENA Regional Manager at N.Thing said: "Our research is to create a sustainable organic ecosystem to save the earth’s resources and reuse the CO2 of the urban area. We are working on extracting the resources from outside air using plasma to consume the city’s carbon dioxide and even alleviate the air pollution. Our design is dedicated to the efficiency, productivity, and functionality of CUBE as a farm solution. CUBE is simple yet effective, functional and beautiful".
N.THING formally launched operations in the UAE in 2020 after completing its PoC (proof of concept) in Abu Dhabi with Smart Acres, to improve food security, develop the country’s farming capabilities, and provide a solution to potential socioeconomic threats such as the pandemic and climate limitations the Middle East currently endures. Together, the businesses were able to grow four different vegetables utilizing the PoC process; they had then discovered the capacity to produce crops of up to 12 tons annually. Growing produce in the region is a challenge given the local climate and landscape, however, N.THING can provide businesses such as Smart Acres with technology that defies the law of nature and significantly contributes to food security across the Middle East.
"We are honored to be awarded CES Innovation Awards and achieve recognition for the accelerated growth of the agri-tech sector. Our company has spent years developing and designing our modular containers. After a successful year working with Smart Acres following our proof of concept stage, we are happy to share what our company has achieved." The CEO of N.THING, Leo Kim, shared.