Modern, founded in 2020 by Chief Executive Yeo Chang-eun, who comes from a farming background, is a smart farm corporations that produces tomatoes year-round based on advanced glass greenhouses. With Deputy CEO Lim Jin-hyeok, formerly of Hanwha Group, joining in March last year to lead strategy and fundraising, the company began to craft a more aggressive growth strategy.
Modern's core product is the functional vegetable "GABA tomato." Developed in mid-2023 through an industry-academic partnership with Kangwon National University, this product contains more than twice as much GABA as regular cherry tomatoes. GABA is called a natural nerve relaxant and helps lower blood pressure, ease insomnia, and reduce stress. In Japan, GABA tomatoes are also popular, but most are produced with gene-editing technology. Modern holds a patented technology that raises GABA content through cultivation techniques alone.
"If you deliberately give vegetables an appropriate level of stress, they produce defensive compounds to overcome it. In that process, GABA increases. We have cultivation technology that precisely controls this physiological response."
Lim emphasized that the differentiator is "producing GABA tomatoes in a healthy and safe way without gene editing."
Modern is expanding its lineup of functional vegetables, starting with GABA tomatoes. On the 8th, it launched bok choy containing more than twice the glucosinolate content. Glucosinolates are abundant natural compounds found in cruciferous plants such as broccoli and cabbage, known for strong antioxidant and anticancer effects.
Lim said, "If GABA tomatoes are the start of health-functional-type vegetables, we plan to expand into a variety of functional fresh vegetables going forward," adding, "We are increasing contract farming with growers and expanding our own smart farms."
Modern's growth is steep. Sales were 1.7 billion won in 2023 and 5.6 billion won in 2024. This year, it is targeting 10 billion won in sales.
Overseas business is also in full swing. Modern is currently running a stevia tomato sales business in Indonesia. It purchases regular tomatoes, processes them to increase sweetness, and sells them, supplying more than 100 local supermarkets. Lim said, "Indonesia's agricultural infrastructure is underdeveloped, making it difficult to obtain high-quality tomatoes," and noted, "We are pursuing plans to build farms directly in cooperation with local governments and agricultural universities." In the second half of next year, it plans to fully launch local cultivation.
Modern will expand its business with a focus on Southeast Asian markets such as Malaysia and Vietnam. It plans to open the market with stevia tomatoes and then expand with GABA tomatoes to target the premium segment.
Lim said, "Tomatoes are a category where consumption increases as household income rises," adding, "As incomes in Southeast Asia rise, demand for premium tomatoes is also growing rapidly." Lim emphasized, "We will build a K-tomato model that carries out everything locally from cultivation to distribution."
Lim said, "Our goal is to achieve 100 billion won in sales by 2028," adding, "We will realize the corporatization of agriculture through advanced cultivation technology and a product strategy centered on functional crops."