In Kentucky, Chinese turn carp into money 
2019-04-30
Taking on the Asian carp ravaging the Mississippi River that cuts through the US heartland, Chinese investors have set up a fish-processing industrial park in Kentucky, and more investment may be spawned in other surrounding states.
It may seem surprising, but there were only eight Chinese companies operating in all of Kentucky by 2018. A sudden surge in number came in mid-April when seven Chinese investors came and established a presence in relatively obscure Wickliffe City in Ballard County.
Together with the Two Rivers Fisheries, created by Chinese-American businesswoman Angie Yu and operating since 2012 in the area, these investors formed the first Asian carp industrial park in the United States.
The International Fisheries Industrial Park, with the newcomers whose specialties range from making fish balls, smoked fish, dried fish and fish sauce to turning fish guts into organic fertilizers, achieves vertical processing integration and created 150 full-time jobs.
The investors, lauded by state and county officials as well as local residents for making the most of the “Asian carp crisis,” toured Kentucky and nearby states. They explored a host of business opportunities.
A conversation with Dan Naes, director of operations at Brown-Forman Distillery, parent of Jack Daniel’s, and a visit to Buffalo Trace, the oldest continuously operating distillery in the United States, have acquainted the Chinese group with Kentucky’s famed bourbon corn liquor industry.
Some of them made inquiries about becoming value-added resellers of Brown-Forman in China. A Hurun Report on whiskey consumption in China published in 2018 showed whiskey enjoyed consecutive growth of more than 20 percent in “consumer preference” in 2016 and 2017.
Xu Hao, a Chinese investor who will make fertilizer out of the discarded gut of Asian carp, was thrilled to see many similarities between Kentucky and his hometown in Yunnan Province — the horse, the water rich in calcium and great number of distilleries.
Xu expected the ingenious marketing of combining whiskey drinking and horse racing, as seen in the already 20-year-long sponsorship of the Kentucky Derby by Brown-Forman’s Woodford Reserve brand, will also work well among the middle-class population of Yunnan, and all of China.
In Perryville City, Perry County of Missouri, which is witnessing a marked population growth due to the arrival of several factories that manufacture auto parts, Mayor Ken Baer expressed hopes that Chinese investors would invest in the construction of condos, something Chinese investors are familiar with thanks to China’s ongoing urbanization and construction boom.
In Cairo City of Illinois, local officials encouraged Chinese investors to consider chipping in on a proposed river port terminal at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers.
Wang Licheng, owner of Eco Fish Products Inc in the industrial park, was especially delighted by the boost the river port, when completed, will add to cruise ship tourism on the Mississippi River. He hopes it will also bring more people to visit the industrial park.
In Arkansas, Jimmy Barnett, aquatic nuisance species coordinator at the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, lamented there was not yet a single Asian carp-processing plant in the whole state, even though the fish were wreaking havoc in the state’s waterways.
Yu said she would likely put Arkansas on top of her list when her Two Rivers Fisheries expands business, given the state’s proximity to her Kentucky plant.
