GreenTech Amsterdam 2026 · Concept Award Nominee
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작성자 MANNACEA 조회View 33 작성일Date 26-05-06 10:05본문
Korean Agricultural Technology Takes on the Netherlands, the Global Home of Greenhouse Horticulture
MANNA CEA’s “MESH” Becomes the First Korean Company to Be Nominated for the GreenTech Amsterdam Concept Award
A Korean agri-tech company has achieved a meaningful milestone at the heart of the global greenhouse horticulture industry.
MANNA CEA Co., Ltd., an agricultural technology company led by CEO Tae-byung Jeon, announced that its modular greenhouse automation solution, MESH, has been selected as one of the three final nominees for the Concept Award at GreenTech Amsterdam 2026, which will be held from June 9 to 11, 2026, at RAI Amsterdam in the Netherlands.
The Concept Award is one of GreenTech’s three major award categories, alongside the Innovation Award and the Impact Award. It recognizes concepts with the greatest potential for successful market entry within the next two years.
GreenTech Amsterdam, hosted by RAI Amsterdam, is widely regarded as one of the world’s most prestigious exhibitions and award platforms for greenhouse horticulture technology. Each year, only nine companies in total — three nominees across each of the three award categories — are selected from submissions around the world. Based on publicly available information, MANNA CEA is effectively the first Korean company to be nominated for the GreenTech Amsterdam awards program.
1. The “Oscars” of Global Agricultural Technology
The GreenTech Innovation & Concept Awards are often referred to as the “Oscars” of the greenhouse horticulture industry. The nomination process is highly selective: in recent years, only 13–25% of submitted entries have been shortlisted, with six nominees in 2021, five in 2022, six in 2023, six in 2024, and six in 2025.
In 2026, the award structure has expanded into three categories — Innovation Award, Concept Award, and Impact Award — with three nominees selected in each category, for a total of nine finalists.
The Concept Award, for which MANNA CEA has been nominated, is regarded as a category that identifies the next wave of promising technologies. Previous Concept Award winners include Corvus Drones in 2021 for agricultural drones, Skytree in 2023 for direct air capture technology, Koppert in 2024 for its Digital Assistant, and ViewNetic in 2025 for AI crop monitoring. These companies went on to attract global capital and expand into international markets after receiving the award.
The fact that a Korean company is now joining this lineup carries significant meaning.
The Concept Award is given to technologies that have not yet been fully commercialized but show the greatest potential for successful market entry within the next two years. Together with the Innovation Award, which recognizes proven commercial products, and the newly introduced Impact Award, which honors products with demonstrated market performance for more than two years, the Concept Award forms a key pillar of GreenTech’s award structure.
MESH’s nomination in this category means that the global jury has officially recognized it as a concept with the potential to reshape the global greenhouse horticulture market within the next two years.
Importantly, a GreenTech Amsterdam nomination is not simply a recognition of participation. The selection is made by a jury of experts from leading institutions in greenhouse horticulture technology, including Wageningen University & Research, TNO, and HortiTech. Entries are evaluated across three core criteria: sustainability, business viability, and market impact.
In that sense, this nomination serves as an objective endorsement that MANNA CEA’s MESH is a globally competitive agricultural technology recognized by Europe.
2. What Is MESH? : From a “Massive System” to a Growing AI Ecosystem
MESH is not a single controller or sensor product. It is what MANNA CEA defines as a Modular Greenhouse Automation Ecosystem.
In simple terms, it is an AI platform that allows growers to start with only what they need and gradually expand over time — without being forced to adopt a massive system from the beginning.
Traditional smart farm automation has often followed an “all-or-nothing” model. To begin automating their farms, growers typically had to replace much of their existing infrastructure and install expensive, fully integrated systems from the outset. MESH directly challenges this barrier to entry.
Five Core Values of MESH
1. Start with what matters : Begin with only the essential controls and sensing functions.
2. Keep useful equipment : Continue using existing farm equipment instead of discarding it.
3. Operate clearly on site : Enable clear, intuitive operation directly in the field.
4. Expand without rebuilding : Scale gradually without rebuilding the entire system.
5. Grow toward AI operation : Evolve into increasingly intelligent farm management over time.
3. Automation at 51.7% Lower Cost : The Core of MESH’s Differentiation
MESH’s greatest strength is its ability to break down the cost barrier to automation.
According to MANNA CEA’s internal comparative analysis, in a one-hectare greenhouse scenario, MESH can deliver the same automation effect at approximately 51.7% lower implementation cost than conventional integrated systems. In other words, the system can be introduced at only about 48.3% of the cost of existing solutions.
The key to this cost innovation lies in MESH’s hardware architecture.
MESH adopts a distributed structure in which a dedicated integrated module is directly connected to each actuator channel. Each module is equipped with its own MCU and current sensing capability, allowing it to directly control motors, pumps, and ventilation windows without a separate PLC or main controller.
Communication is based on BLE 5.4 Mesh wireless technology, significantly reducing the burden of wiring work — one of the major cost drivers in conventional greenhouse automation.
As a result, MESH can cover three different scenarios: Starter, for growers introducing automation for the first time; Retrofit, for upgrading existing facilities; and Multi-zone, for multi-zone or newly built farms. This structure allows a single product family to address both new installations and replacement markets.
4. Beyond Simple Monitoring : Evolving into Decision-Making AI
Another key differentiator that caught the attention of the GreenTech jury is that MESH’s AI functions not merely as a monitoring tool, but as a decision-support system.
MESH’s AI service consists of two main pillars.
The first is Context-aware Farm Analysis, which integrates environmental data, equipment operation, image signals, weather information, and farm records into a single operational view. It helps answer practical questions such as: What matters right now? Why does it matter? What should be done next?
The second is Yield Forecasting & Revenue Outlook, a decision-making tool that compares scenarios based on expected harvest timing, projected yield, revenue outlook, and improvement options.
While many existing smart farm solutions focus on showing what has already happened, MESH AI aims to answer what growers should do next.
This approach aligns with the direction represented by Koppert’s Digital Assistant, the 2024 GreenTech winner, while advancing further by combining a broader farm context, including image diagnosis, revenue forecasting, and scenario comparison.
5. MANNA CEA’s Journey : From the Farm to the Global Market
MANNA CEA Co., Ltd. is an agricultural technology company headquartered in Jincheon, Chungcheongbuk-do, South Korea.
The company has built practical expertise through multiple business areas, including its directly operated agri-tainment farms such as Root Square, Samchon Farm, and Imo Farm; its AI-based crop monitoring platform, MESH Image Hub; and smart farm ODA projects in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan conducted through a consortium with Dohwa Engineering, one of Korea’s largest construction engineering companies.
“MESH did not begin with the idea of building a perfect system,” said CTO Jun-gi Lim. “It began with the question of how to build a system that farmers can actually use. The field data and operational know-how we have accumulated through more than 10 years of running farms ourselves have been combined with AI and embodied in MESH. That is the real asset that led to this GreenTech nomination.”
MESH is currently undergoing demonstration operations at selected beta sites. Following GreenTech Amsterdam 2026, MANNA CEA plans to begin its full-scale global market launch in August 2026.
The company’s official GreenTech page already lists the United States and Canada, Japan and Southeast Asia, and Central Asian markets including Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan as regions available for business. The “market entry potential within the next two years” recognized by the GreenTech jury is now directly connected to MANNA CEA’s actual global launch roadmap.
6. Significance : A Signal for “Korean AI Smart Farm 2.0”
Over the past decade, Korean smart farm technologies have gained a certain level of recognition both domestically and internationally through platforms such as the CES Innovation Awards and government-led pilot projects.
However, if “Korean Smart Farm 1.0” was largely evaluated on U.S.-based stages centered on consumer electronics and technology, MANNA CEA’s nomination at GreenTech Amsterdam represents something different. It marks a moment in which Korean agricultural technology has been recognized by the European greenhouse horticulture sector itself.
The European greenhouse horticulture market, centered around the Netherlands, is known for being conservative and difficult to enter. The fact that a Korean company has been nominated within that ecosystem’s own evaluation framework suggests that Korea’s smart farm industry is moving beyond the simple export of hardware and entering a new phase — one in which it is earning a place on the global map of greenhouse horticulture technology.
The final winners of GreenTech Amsterdam 2026 will be announced on June 9, 2026, the opening day of the event. As a nominated company, MANNA CEA will meet global buyers and media at its dedicated booth in the Innovation Zone, Hall 5, at RAI Amsterdam.
The real test for Korean agricultural technology begins there.
MANNA CEA’s “MESH” Becomes the First Korean Company to Be Nominated for the GreenTech Amsterdam Concept Award
A Korean agri-tech company has achieved a meaningful milestone at the heart of the global greenhouse horticulture industry.
MANNA CEA Co., Ltd., an agricultural technology company led by CEO Tae-byung Jeon, announced that its modular greenhouse automation solution, MESH, has been selected as one of the three final nominees for the Concept Award at GreenTech Amsterdam 2026, which will be held from June 9 to 11, 2026, at RAI Amsterdam in the Netherlands.
The Concept Award is one of GreenTech’s three major award categories, alongside the Innovation Award and the Impact Award. It recognizes concepts with the greatest potential for successful market entry within the next two years.
GreenTech Amsterdam, hosted by RAI Amsterdam, is widely regarded as one of the world’s most prestigious exhibitions and award platforms for greenhouse horticulture technology. Each year, only nine companies in total — three nominees across each of the three award categories — are selected from submissions around the world. Based on publicly available information, MANNA CEA is effectively the first Korean company to be nominated for the GreenTech Amsterdam awards program.
1. The “Oscars” of Global Agricultural Technology
The GreenTech Innovation & Concept Awards are often referred to as the “Oscars” of the greenhouse horticulture industry. The nomination process is highly selective: in recent years, only 13–25% of submitted entries have been shortlisted, with six nominees in 2021, five in 2022, six in 2023, six in 2024, and six in 2025.
In 2026, the award structure has expanded into three categories — Innovation Award, Concept Award, and Impact Award — with three nominees selected in each category, for a total of nine finalists.
The Concept Award, for which MANNA CEA has been nominated, is regarded as a category that identifies the next wave of promising technologies. Previous Concept Award winners include Corvus Drones in 2021 for agricultural drones, Skytree in 2023 for direct air capture technology, Koppert in 2024 for its Digital Assistant, and ViewNetic in 2025 for AI crop monitoring. These companies went on to attract global capital and expand into international markets after receiving the award.
The fact that a Korean company is now joining this lineup carries significant meaning.
The Concept Award is given to technologies that have not yet been fully commercialized but show the greatest potential for successful market entry within the next two years. Together with the Innovation Award, which recognizes proven commercial products, and the newly introduced Impact Award, which honors products with demonstrated market performance for more than two years, the Concept Award forms a key pillar of GreenTech’s award structure.
MESH’s nomination in this category means that the global jury has officially recognized it as a concept with the potential to reshape the global greenhouse horticulture market within the next two years.
Importantly, a GreenTech Amsterdam nomination is not simply a recognition of participation. The selection is made by a jury of experts from leading institutions in greenhouse horticulture technology, including Wageningen University & Research, TNO, and HortiTech. Entries are evaluated across three core criteria: sustainability, business viability, and market impact.
In that sense, this nomination serves as an objective endorsement that MANNA CEA’s MESH is a globally competitive agricultural technology recognized by Europe.
2. What Is MESH? : From a “Massive System” to a Growing AI Ecosystem
MESH is not a single controller or sensor product. It is what MANNA CEA defines as a Modular Greenhouse Automation Ecosystem.
In simple terms, it is an AI platform that allows growers to start with only what they need and gradually expand over time — without being forced to adopt a massive system from the beginning.
Traditional smart farm automation has often followed an “all-or-nothing” model. To begin automating their farms, growers typically had to replace much of their existing infrastructure and install expensive, fully integrated systems from the outset. MESH directly challenges this barrier to entry.
Five Core Values of MESH
1. Start with what matters : Begin with only the essential controls and sensing functions.
2. Keep useful equipment : Continue using existing farm equipment instead of discarding it.
3. Operate clearly on site : Enable clear, intuitive operation directly in the field.
4. Expand without rebuilding : Scale gradually without rebuilding the entire system.
5. Grow toward AI operation : Evolve into increasingly intelligent farm management over time.
3. Automation at 51.7% Lower Cost : The Core of MESH’s Differentiation
MESH’s greatest strength is its ability to break down the cost barrier to automation.
According to MANNA CEA’s internal comparative analysis, in a one-hectare greenhouse scenario, MESH can deliver the same automation effect at approximately 51.7% lower implementation cost than conventional integrated systems. In other words, the system can be introduced at only about 48.3% of the cost of existing solutions.
The key to this cost innovation lies in MESH’s hardware architecture.
MESH adopts a distributed structure in which a dedicated integrated module is directly connected to each actuator channel. Each module is equipped with its own MCU and current sensing capability, allowing it to directly control motors, pumps, and ventilation windows without a separate PLC or main controller.
Communication is based on BLE 5.4 Mesh wireless technology, significantly reducing the burden of wiring work — one of the major cost drivers in conventional greenhouse automation.
As a result, MESH can cover three different scenarios: Starter, for growers introducing automation for the first time; Retrofit, for upgrading existing facilities; and Multi-zone, for multi-zone or newly built farms. This structure allows a single product family to address both new installations and replacement markets.
4. Beyond Simple Monitoring : Evolving into Decision-Making AI
Another key differentiator that caught the attention of the GreenTech jury is that MESH’s AI functions not merely as a monitoring tool, but as a decision-support system.
MESH’s AI service consists of two main pillars.
The first is Context-aware Farm Analysis, which integrates environmental data, equipment operation, image signals, weather information, and farm records into a single operational view. It helps answer practical questions such as: What matters right now? Why does it matter? What should be done next?
The second is Yield Forecasting & Revenue Outlook, a decision-making tool that compares scenarios based on expected harvest timing, projected yield, revenue outlook, and improvement options.
While many existing smart farm solutions focus on showing what has already happened, MESH AI aims to answer what growers should do next.
This approach aligns with the direction represented by Koppert’s Digital Assistant, the 2024 GreenTech winner, while advancing further by combining a broader farm context, including image diagnosis, revenue forecasting, and scenario comparison.
5. MANNA CEA’s Journey : From the Farm to the Global Market
MANNA CEA Co., Ltd. is an agricultural technology company headquartered in Jincheon, Chungcheongbuk-do, South Korea.
The company has built practical expertise through multiple business areas, including its directly operated agri-tainment farms such as Root Square, Samchon Farm, and Imo Farm; its AI-based crop monitoring platform, MESH Image Hub; and smart farm ODA projects in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan conducted through a consortium with Dohwa Engineering, one of Korea’s largest construction engineering companies.
“MESH did not begin with the idea of building a perfect system,” said CTO Jun-gi Lim. “It began with the question of how to build a system that farmers can actually use. The field data and operational know-how we have accumulated through more than 10 years of running farms ourselves have been combined with AI and embodied in MESH. That is the real asset that led to this GreenTech nomination.”
MESH is currently undergoing demonstration operations at selected beta sites. Following GreenTech Amsterdam 2026, MANNA CEA plans to begin its full-scale global market launch in August 2026.
The company’s official GreenTech page already lists the United States and Canada, Japan and Southeast Asia, and Central Asian markets including Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan as regions available for business. The “market entry potential within the next two years” recognized by the GreenTech jury is now directly connected to MANNA CEA’s actual global launch roadmap.
6. Significance : A Signal for “Korean AI Smart Farm 2.0”
Over the past decade, Korean smart farm technologies have gained a certain level of recognition both domestically and internationally through platforms such as the CES Innovation Awards and government-led pilot projects.
However, if “Korean Smart Farm 1.0” was largely evaluated on U.S.-based stages centered on consumer electronics and technology, MANNA CEA’s nomination at GreenTech Amsterdam represents something different. It marks a moment in which Korean agricultural technology has been recognized by the European greenhouse horticulture sector itself.
The European greenhouse horticulture market, centered around the Netherlands, is known for being conservative and difficult to enter. The fact that a Korean company has been nominated within that ecosystem’s own evaluation framework suggests that Korea’s smart farm industry is moving beyond the simple export of hardware and entering a new phase — one in which it is earning a place on the global map of greenhouse horticulture technology.
The final winners of GreenTech Amsterdam 2026 will be announced on June 9, 2026, the opening day of the event. As a nominated company, MANNA CEA will meet global buyers and media at its dedicated booth in the Innovation Zone, Hall 5, at RAI Amsterdam.
The real test for Korean agricultural technology begins there.