Sharp originally began as a mechanical pencil company, which soon evolved in a television business. But now to strawberries?

Sharp took a hard turn as its net loss, recorded in March, was $5.3 billion dollars. Many employees were fired and capital investments were cut by 31%, as their televisions and smart phones were at a dead revenue of half their level from four years ago. However, unlike Blackberry, when the going got tough Sharp chose an admirable route for their company.

Sharp’s net profit

Their aim in their experiment for this route is to create “the perfect strawberry” with the use of their developed technology to control light, temperature, and humidity. This experiment is taking place in Dubai. If it succeeds the company will be able to decide whether creating an agricultural engineering business would be the direction they would want to go, as they would then focus on factory design, technology to enhance growing conditions and more.

Sharp’s strawberry experiment

What is unique about Sharp’s new focus is how they were quick to react. They looked for an area in the market with scarcity, in this case, the middle East who are unable to grow their own strawberries. They looked to solve the whole problem, and if their plan succeeds, they will b able to change the course of Middle Eastern agriculture by enabling them to create their own fruits/vegetables instead of paying expensive prices to purchase Japanese strawberries that spoil easily.

Sources:

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-09-27/forget-tvs-dot-sharp-sees-a-future-in-strawberry-farming#r=nav-f-story

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-57604491-71/sharp-makes-a-comeback-its-growing-strawberries/?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=