Jack Ma’s ag-tech tour

Since stepping down from his executive chairman role at Alibaba in 2019, Jack Ma has reportedly been on an international fact-finding tour to find solutions for solving food crises.

• According to the WSJ, Ma’s tour has included stops in the Netherlands and Thailand, as well as a tour of Japan’s Aquaculture Research Institute at Kindai University, where researchers have been farming bluefin tuna.
• Farming bluefin tuna could help provide a stable supply of a valuable and critical ingredient in sushi and Japanese cuisine, per the WSJ.

Ma’s Japan pit stop is a significant data point in rising global interest in aquaculture innovation, where salmon and trout are farmed as opposed to being fished.

• Startups like Ynsect and Innovafeed breed insects that, in turn, are used as feed for the aquaculture industry.

The largest aquaculture-producing countries in the world are in Asia, and together they account for 91% of global aquaculture production. In 2019, the US freshwater and marine aquaculture industry was valued at an estimated $1.5 billion, per NOAA.—JM