The Dream Factory of China

Source :Qianhai Communication Center

Hong Kong entrepreneur Yu Gwong-tou who founded a biotechnological startup in Qianhai last year said there is huge market potential for his company’s organic waste disposal business.

Yu’s Cooh Science Biology (Shenzhen) Co. Ltd., a branch of his Hong Kong company, specializes in using black soldier flies to dispose of organic waste.

Black soldier flies eat poultry and livestock manure, animal and plant residues, and food waste. According to Yu, the insects are native to the Americas, but are now widely distributed in 40 degrees north and south latitudes such as in Guangdong, Guangxi and Guizhou provinces, and in Taiwan.

“A pair of black soldier flies can lay nearly 1,000 eggs and the larvae hatched from 1 kilogram of the eggs can consume five tons of kitchen waste in 10 days and produce one ton of commercial fresh insects and three tons of organic fertilizer,” he said, adding that they can convert into high-value insect protein feed.

Yu said he saw huge business potential for his company on the Chinese mainland as garbage classification has just started in some metropolises such as Shenzhen and Shanghai. “For example, there is about 10,000 tons of kitchen waste being generated every day in Shanghai.”

Yu said he has always wanted to engage in the biotechnology business since he finished his graduate study at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University in 2010. In 2019, he set up Cooh in Hong Kong, and got involved in a project of the Hong Kong Environmental Protection Department, in which black soldier flies were used to deal with pollution in Hong Kong’s livestock industry caused by chicken manure. The project was a success.

Yu expanded his business to Qianhai in December last year and opened an office at the Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Youth Innovation and Entrepreneur Hub (E-hub).

“The E-hub is popular among Hong Kong entrepreneurs as it offers a number of favorable policies to us,” Yu said of his choice of settling his Shenzhen startup at the E-hub. “It took me only half a day to complete the registration of my company. I plan to have my wife and child move to Shenzhen.”

Currently, Yu’s company is negotiating cooperation details with clients in Dongguan and Shenzhen. He said he plans to duplicate his successful experience in Hong Kong in more mainland cities and the overseas countries.