BBA Class of 2015 alumnus Tan Ying Quan’s career journey has been fueled by his interest in food.
The interest started young. At an early age, Ying Quan helped out at his father’s Hainanese chicken rice stall. The exposure ignited a passion that continues to burn brightly, as he now carves out a career for himself in the fast growing aquaculture sector in Singapore.
Currently the Head of People and Partnerships at aquaculture firm Barramundi Group Limited, Ying Quan shared about his company and the aquaculture scene in a recent show on Channel NewsAsia (https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/climate-change-singapore-food-production-fish-eggs-13792120).
Even now, he continues to speak effusively about food, citing it as “a medium that brings joy and brings people together”.
In an interview with BIZBeat, Ying Quan recounted his experience starting a food enterprise during his NUS Overseas Colleges (NOC) programme in the United States (US) in 2014. There, he founded Peasures Inc, a snack food manufacturing company with operations in both the US and Singapore.
Ying Quan said, “This was during a time when artisanal sustainable food options and food-tech start-ups emerged and started becoming mainstream. Peasures Inc was one of the first few food companies launching a fundraising campaign through the fundraising platform Kickstarter. It was an exciting journey creating our vegan and organic brand of products.”
Unfortunately, the company had to cease operations after two years. The team could not scale up the business and faced tremendous difficulties breaking into traditional retail channels.
Ying Quan’s affinity with food enterprises did not end there. For the next four years, he joined Enterprise Singapore (ESG), where he worked with food enterprises in the food services and food manufacturing sectors. He was also part of ESG’s pioneering agri-tech team that led the development of Singapore’s agri-tech start-up ecosystem.
“The experience with Enterprise Singapore allowed me to delve into various aspects of ecosystem development, policymaking, research and innovation. I also worked with enterprises, research institutions and start-ups to develop partnership opportunities and build new capabilities.” said Ying Quan.
He learnt that aquaculture is the world’s fastest-growing animal protein industry, and a key solution to bridging the world protein gap, thereby combating food insecurity.