How a group of Hong Kong university graduates turned an organic farming start-up in Greater Bay Area’s Jiangmen city profitable

Guangdong Shining Farm, a sustainable agricultural start-up, grows vegetables and fish at their aquaponics facility in Jiangmen

The company is now expanding their production capacity from nearly 400 tonnes of vegetables a year to 8,000 tonnes

Reading Time:3 minutes

(From left) Mandy Tam, Fung Leung and Victor Lo, the co-founders of Guangdong Shining Farm. Photo: Handout

Published: 12:30pm, 30 Jan 2022

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.

Guangdong Shining Farm’s greenhouse in Jiangmen, where it grows bok choy, cabbage and lettuce. Photo: Handout

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.

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