Shortly after entering the US market, ProteoSense, a Columbus, Ohio-based ag-tech startup, is looking at China as a target market for international expansion.
"For example, if you're an apple grower, apples go through the processing facility where they're washed and sorted, and that's where the risk for a food-borne pathogen comes in," said Mark Byrne, founder and CEO of ProteoSense.
The company's technology can help food manufacturers and processors comply with increasing food-safety requirements by quickly identifying pathogens rather than acting after a contamination problem or recall has occurred, Byrne said.
He said his company is looking for partnerships that have customer relationships in China.
The fast-growing middle class in China is driving food-safety improvements in the country, and its vast market provides big opportunities for ag-food tech companies.
But Aaron Magenheim, founder of AgTech Insight, a Salinas, California-based ag-tech consultancy, said he wants to build a Chinese company and stay there for a long time.
"I'm not trying to have a quick exit to pay off a venture capitalist," said Magenheim.
"We can either bring a technology from Silicon Valley to China, or we can make the concepts work for China and build it there."
For the past five years, Magenheim has been working to build relationships and networks in China. He said he doesn't believe in "patent infringement very much anymore".
"It used to be important, but now the most important thing is 'time to market' and market share－getting a decent product out to the masses and having big adoption rates," he said.
"So if you look at it in that way, a US company should not be worried about a Chinese company taking their idea and running with it," he said.
Source: China Daily
