Hong Kong entrepreneurs are finding success across the border as they take advantage of opportunities in the Greater Bay Area . Three university graduates from Hong Kong ventured into the Bay Area city of Jiangmen in 2016 to pursue their dream of becoming “modern farmers”, launching a sustainable agricultural start-up for growing organic vegetables and fish. Within five years the start-up, Guangdong Shining Farm, has broken even and will be paying profit tax this year, according to co-founder Victor Lo. “We wanted to find a new way of approaching agricultural production that was healthier and more environmentally friendly. But land is scarce in Hong Kong and there is not enough farmland,” said Lo. After analysing opportunities in different Greater Bay Area cities, Lo and his co-founders Fung Leung and Mandy Tam, who were secondary school classmates in Hong Kong, settled on Jiangmen. The global organic farming market is forecast to reach US$183.8 billion by 2027, from US$96.1 billion in 2020, according to market research firm BlueWeave Consulting. “The organic farming market is growing due to the increased organic food demand, growing emphasis on sustainable farming, and rising adulteration rates across developing countries, as well as growing concerns about climate change and global warming ,” analysts at BlueWeave Consulting said. With help from the Jiangmen municipal government, which provided them with housing support and a 200 square metre greenhouse free of charge to conduct their scientific research, they set up their base at the city’s National Agricultural Science and Technology Park in 2016. They spent three years on research and development to combine fish and plant production, a circular approach to farming known as aquaponics, Lo said. They developed a circular system which allows organic matter in the water from fish farming, including manure, to be decomposed into nutrients that can be absorbed by vegetables. After the organic matter is absorbed from the water by the vegetables, the clean water goes back into the fish tank. The circular system does not generate any waste water and eliminates the need for chemical fertilisers. Fertiliser production is a carbon intensive process. The supply chain of synthetic nitrogen fertilisers, commonly used in conventional agriculture to boost productivity, was responsible for estimated emissions of 1.25 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents in 2018, according to a report from US think tank the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, Greenpeace International and non-profit international organisation Grain in November. Agriculture and food production accounted for about a third of global greenhouse gas emissions in 2019, or 16.5 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents, according to a report by the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation released at the COP26 summit in Glasgow in November. “In traditional ways of growing vegetables, it is a common practice to use chemical fertilisers. But we use water that is used to grow fish as the ‘fertiliser’ for our vegetables, which is completely organic,” said Lo. “As the vegetables absorb natural nutrients, it is healthier [to consume] and comes without harmful chemicals. The fish would die if there are any harmful chemicals in the water.” Organic coffee grown and roasted in Hong Kong the fruit of a sustainable farming project in New Territories Guangdong Shining Farm, which now operates around 8,000 square metres of greenhouse, produces up to 400 tonnes of vegetables – bok choy, cabbage and lettuce – per year, supplying them mainly to Hong Kong and neighbouring cities in Guangdong province such as Jiangmen and Dongguan. Their organic vegetables are priced around 50 per cent higher than normal produce sold at the local wet market. As their vegetables are currently unbranded, consumers could be purchasing their produce unknowingly for Lunar New Year, said Lo. Their circular system currently uses two breeds of fish, tilapia and duckbill, which are also sold when they grow big and replaced with juvenile fish. They have also applied their agricultural techniques and expertise to develop projects externally, which has helped their bottom line. In January, they helped to set up a 1,800 square metre greenhouse in an eco-tourism park in Jiangmen’s Heshan county, showcasing the different agricultural production techniques. The start-up is now constructing a larger 333,000 square metre greenhouse facility nearby. Due to be completed in around six months’ time, it will be able to supply around 8,000 tonnes of vegetables a year. They plan to produce different types of vegetables and sell to more cities in the Greater Bay Area . “In the future, we hope to produce agricultural products of an even higher quality that is more eco-friendly,” said Lo.