Hong Kong Oyster Hatchery and
Innovation Research Unit (HKO-HIRU)
The University of Hong Kong
Innovation and entrepreneurship
How to enter the oyster aquaculture business?
Think about which role you want to play in the oyster production line...
Do you want to be a oyster farmer? Distributor? Seller? Researcher?
What service could you provide?
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What is needed in the industry?
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Innovation is always key to success
How to start a business after you have ideas?
1. Get funding from competitions, government funding schemes
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2. Understand your advantages, disadvantages, and resources available, such as research knowledge, laboratory and technology, marketing and business knowledge, available land and infrastructure, and human resources
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3. Open a company and start making your ideas come true!
Innovations for small scale oyster industries
1. Depuration
- Cleans the oysters and increases meat quality, increase price of oysters sold
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2. Hatchery
- Provides oyster seeds free from pollution, fast growing, and resistant to winter mortality
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3. Harvesting and packaging industry
- Provides fresh oysters visually appealing ready to be sold to the market
Innovations for marketing and business
1. Best management procedure protocol and ecolabelling
- Provides food safety and quality certificates for oysters, gain trust from consumers
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2. Inventing and promoting new methods for oyster eating
- Raises price of oysters or generates higher income
Research based innovations
1. Selective breeding, incorporating machine learning and big data
- Provides oysters favoured by consumers at low cost and high price
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2. Triploid larvae industry
- Provides oyster seeds that invest more in growth rather than reproduction
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3. Sustainable aquaculture
- Incorporating ecological knowledge and technology, increasing cost-effectiveness