As climate change increases the volatility of agricultural yields and quality, large-scale marts are leveraging smart farms as a stable supply chain. To reduce uncertainty in agricultural supply and demand, Lotte Mart is expanding the range of products handled through smart farms, the number of partner farms, and operational volumes.
According to industry sources on the 4th, Lotte Mart's smart farm operational volume doubled from approximately 500 tons in 2024 to about 1,000 tons last year, with plans to expand to roughly 1,300 tons this year. The number of partner smart farms also increased from over 100 during the same period to more than 120, with an expansion to approximately 130 planned for this year.
The variety of products handled is also on the rise. It grew from about 10 items in 2024 to around 30 last year, and is expected to expand to approximately 40 this year. This is to complement the uncertainty of open-field cultivation, where yields vary significantly depending on weather conditions, and to secure agricultural products of uniform quality throughout the year.
Initially, Lotte Mart focused its smart farm operations on strawberries, tomatoes, and European lettuce. Recently, as extreme weather events such as heatwaves and heavy rains have become more frequent, the company has expanded its use of smart farms for crops heavily affected by climate.
In particular, this summer, as heatwaves destabilized the supply and quality of some vegetables, Lotte Mart actively utilized smart farm produce. Notably, it secured an additional approximately 7 tons of cucumbers grown in smart farms to address stockouts at conventional farms and minimize price surges. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, wholesale cucumber prices in July this year rose to the range of 70,000 to 80,000 won per 100 units. This is a significant increase compared to the average July price of around 55,000 won.
Additionally, for cabbage varieties whose quality deteriorates in high temperatures, Lotte Mart continued sales by operating smart farm products. Smart farm lettuce and perilla leaves, first introduced last year, were also procured through smart farms this year.
Lotte Mart is also utilizing smart farms to broaden the shipping periods of existing agricultural products or introduce new items. Last year and this year, it introduced strawberries grown in a smart farm in Seosan, Chungcheongnam-do, allowing customers to enjoy strawberries even in summer. It also launched "house figs eaten in spring" at the end of March, approximately five months earlier than the typical season for figs (August to October), by leveraging smart farm technology.
There are also cases where Lotte Mart has expanded the product range of domestic agricultural goods. A representative example is fresh domestic calamansi fruit utilizing smart farms, introduced at the end of August. In Korea, calamansi had mainly been distributed in the form of juice or concentrate using raw materials from Vietnam; this marked the first introduction of a fresh fruit product through smart farm cultivation.
A Lotte Mart official explained, "We plan to continue collaborating with smart farm partners to reduce supply and demand uncertainty caused by climate change, while also broadening cultivation periods and discovering new varieties so that customers can access a diverse range of agricultural products."
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