Friday Beyond Spotlights – Anthony Lu: Investing in FoodTech and Food Security

Friday Beyond Spotlights is an informative yet light-hearted talk show airing every Friday at 8:30pm on Hong Kong International Business Channel (#76). The English language program features the most prominent guests who share their insights into current affairs, business, innovation and culture, as well as their ingenuity, passion and grit which forge their Lion Rock Spirit. The show is hosted by businessman and philanthropist Patrick Tsang On-yip, lawyer and lawmaker Nick Chan Hiu-fung, and seasoned business maverick Herman Hu Shao-ming.

Hosted by Nick Chan, episode 10 of Season 2 presents Anthony Lu, the Director of the China Resources Research Institute of Science and Technology under the China Resource Group. Lu says Hong Kong is a mecca for the global dining industry and a food ingredient trading centre. As the fusion hub of global culinary delights since 1970, the city has attracted a large number of talents in culinary industry from around the world who brought in food ingredients as well. The growth of China’s economy since 1990 has also created a strong demand for premium foods and ingredients, and Hong Kong has played a key role in introducing those food ingredients to the Mainland. Giving an example, he says in 2021, despite the disruption caused by Covid-19, China imported 2.3 billion tonnes of beef, of which a high 16 percent was through Hong Kong.

Lu says the last two decades witnessed a modernisation of agriculture, with a lot of new technologies being adopted in the farming, supply chain and logistics. “There were two major aspects of the technology that have been adopted to promote modernisation: big data and artificial intelligence. We believe that one day it would be a truly demand-driven economy of the food sector, and it’s for people’s individual consumption can be predicted and forecasted. And then we will have a more accurate way of having this growing and supply side change so that it can be more accommodating and more environmentally friendly.”

He says new technology has also been applied on the physical side of the growing transportation and logistics of the food, and how to deliver and process the food to the table of every consumer. “A lot of massive planting and growing technologies have been applied, and these will change the business model of how we supply food and deliver food to every consumer.”

The strategy of the China Resources Research Institute of Science and Technology is to commercialise some new tech in Hong Kong and to connect it to the market, says Lu. “We are looking into new sectors of business development because after the big data and the artificial intelligence, we are trying to connect artificial intelligence with manufacturing, with the service sector and even having this ongoing mechanical robotic science.”

Despite Hong Kong’s easy access to talents and research institutions, he would like to see the potential and opportunities for the city to go even higher in terms of enlarging the talent pool and also a better position in the global value chain and the versatility of industries that people can have in the city.

In the program, Lu shares with audiences a pair of laboratory tweezers that has a special significance in shaping him into who he is today, forging him with that Lion Rock Spirit. “These tweezers are my friends and teammates, and saw me through my academic years to finish my PhD degree. It was the first thing I got in the laboratories given by my supervisor when I joined Manchester University as an MPhil student, that was my first time engaging in a real-world scientific research.”

The tweezers have accompanied Yu through all the successes and failures during his nanotechnology studies and researches at the university, including his final project on ultra-high frequency detection devices. For this experiment, he needed to travel from Manchester to Austin in the US, and the breakthrough was finally achieved despite several unexpected incidents happening before and during the experiment. “That was a big lesson for me. Nothing comes easy and it’s supposed to be difficult, it’s supposed to be impossible and had a very high chance of failure. The only thing that can gets me through is: you don’t know, you try, you keep trying, and you have this will and perseverance to keep trying until you get there and until somehow you get the result. So that’s what drives me.”

Although Lu’s final PhD project was nearly spoilt by the mistake made by a postgraduate student who helped him complete some steps before he travelled to Austin, he stresses the importance of trusting other people, especially the young people. “At the end of the day, you have to trust other people and you have to cultivate and work with other people and having room for them to make mistakes. For academic research, it more or less relies on yourself and your intelligence; but in the business world, there are a lot of uncertainties that you have to rely on your teammates and trust your teammates. And the only thing you can do is to let your teammates or subordinates have room to make mistakes so that they can learn, so that they can be part of your team and really get the things right in the future. That’s very important.”

To watch the video, visit Friday Everyday YouTube Channel – Friday Beyond Spotlights Season 2 Episode 10 l Anthony Lu

Episode 10: https://youtu.be/EkXmDuq1AJk