- Roger Gilbert, Publisher, Perendale Publishers Ltd
First of all, can you tell us more about your career at Famsun R&D?
I joined the company in 1992 as an Automation Engineer after graduating in Industrial Electrics and Automation. In 1998, I became the Deputy General Manager of Automation Business. At that time, we started taking the leadership in machine and plant automation in the Chinese feed industry. From 2003 to 2007, I held various management positions across the corporation from procurement to sales. In 2008, I became the Vice President of the Group, and since 2012 as the Chief Technology Officer to lead Famsun R&D globally.
How important is R&D in developing leading-edge equipment that meets the needs of the feed milling industry globally?
Global food production systems would not be able to feed a growing world’s population without the modern feed industry. Processing machines convert ingredients into long-lasting, high-quality, nutritious and more digestible feed for livestock, and allow commercial animal farming businesses to be scaled worldwide. Innovations create values and accelerate changes.
Leading-edge processing equipment and technologies can help feed producers to transfer their innovations into marketable products and enable them to address the development challenges they have to face in a changing market environment.
In other words, the feed machinery industry is an indispensable link in the farm-to-table supply chain. Its effects on the research and development of new processing machines and technologies support feed manufacturing progress towards a more modern and sustainable industry. I’m very glad that Famsun is always playing this role and advancing sustainability across the whole value chain.
As the Chief Technology Officer, what’s your expectation on Famsun’s R&D?
Again, I’d like to emphasise that innovations create value and accelerate changes. In this sense, R&D in a company should contribute to the long-term competitiveness and profitability of its organisation and all stakeholders in its value chain as well.
In Famsun, I hope our R&D experts can create new and improved products, technologies and solutions that could be converted into profitable, growing business for the company while keeping it in a technical leading position in the industry.
As an important technical supplier in the global feed-to-food supply chain, we hope our customers can benefit from our integrated, advanced solutions from production to operation and management in feed milling, animal farming and food production. And as a technical partner, we hope to collaborate more closely with industrial partners to develop necessary solutions and scale them timely to lead the industry toward a promising future.
For end consumers, we hope our R&D efforts can help them enjoy more safe, healthy, nutritional and affordable food that produced in efficient and sustainable manner. In Famsun, almost one-third of our employees work for R&D. They are the best talents from different professional fields with great knowledge, experience and wisdom, and innovative skills and motivation for success.
How much (percentage wise of turnover) is Famsun Group investing each year in R&D? And is this enough?
About five percent. Actually, an investment of five percent (of turnover) is indeed a lot for mechanical and plant engineering companies. The positive business development and strong global market position Famsun achieves today proves that our Board of Directors and Senior Executive Board have make correct decisions on Famsun R&D all these years. The increasing budget as a good result of the growing business performance for sure will accelerate our Research, Development and Innovation plans in the coming years.
What areas of milling are most of the Famsun R&D fund spent on, in recent years?
Famsun always eyes on providing advanced solutions that are necessary to help our customers overcome current obstacles and address future threats. For this reason, we have invested a lot of our R&D budget recent years in the research aspects of large-scale industrial production; intelligence, digital, new alternative protein and future food.
We hope the breakthroughs we have make and yet to create in these fields can help our customers run their production facilities more efficiently and develop their businesses more sustainably with lower energy rates, lower emissions, less waste, less water, but higher productivity and profitability.
What are the key issues Famsun R&D is dealing with most successfully? For the domestic markets, and for the international market?
There are numerous examples that have come to both China and international markets. The most notable is Famsun Future-Fit Aquafeed Extrusion solutions. The low-starch formula extrusion technology can help aquafeed producers adapt to the changing market demand. While with a quick-start conditioner, our extruder can save hundreds of kilos of raw material wastes at each startup of production.
Among others, the Famsun SME online controller provides great flexibility to extrusion production, along with improved production capacity, desired bulk density, high starch gelatinisation levels, satisfying water stability as well as better appearance and lower energy consumption.
Another example is Famsun’s Digital & Intelligence solutions. Famsun’s Animal Farming IOT and Traceability Platform is another one of them. The platform connects data from feed mill to livestock farms and provides the data transparency necessary for industry integrators to optimise their operations. Our experts are trying to extend our digital solutions to bring interconnection and efficiency across the complete value chain from farm to consumer.
How do we ensure to feed a population of 9.8 billion people in 2050? Is this an achievable goal?
It is very clear that the growing population is not the only challenge we have to face in the future. Climate change, failing of soil, freshwater shortage... our agri-food industry is facing moonshot-sized challenges to enable the food production system to meet the growing food demand while in balance with nature. We must improve productivity to produce more healthy food, while protecting our living environment by slowing the rate of growth in demand of water, energy and other resources, and reducing GHG emissions.
We also must enable agri-food industry to prosper and to lift more people who depend on it for livelihood out of poverty. Therefore, we must change the way we produce and consume in food production.
Like Famsun, most Agri-Food Tech companies are stepping up to the most promising solutions that are currently available or show promise in the near term. From alternatives such as insect-, algae- and methane-based feed ingredients that help to relief the pressure on terrestrial and marine production system to plant-based meat and cell-based meat that use less land and water while reducing environmental footprint by shortening plant-to-meat conversion chain, and from gene-editing, drones and indoor farming to satellite imaging, precision farming and intelligent industry 4.0, the most advanced technologies are driving radical transformation in our food and agriculture system.
As these future technologies are getting more popular, and with a more and more connective, collaborated and inclusive supply chain, we believe the agri-food industry will and must be able to tackle future challenges and create a sustainable food future on our planet.
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