Researcher of international trade of agri-food products, food security and sustainability in The French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD)

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Flavia Fabiano is an economic and political analyst, specialized in transitions and innovations towards sustainable food systems and working in CIRAD in Montpellier.

She has joined CIRAD in 2016 and since then she has worked through teaching and research activities on how to improve the sustainability of long-distance agricultural value chains, like coffee, banana, cacao and palm oil. Within this work she has analysed a wide range of private and public norms and tools for improving long distance agricultural sustainability, like: labels, corporate social responsibility commitments, due diligence, and regulations against imported deforestation.

In 2022, she obtained a PhD in political economics, with a dissertation on the theme: “Rising China and sustainable value chains: the case of palm oil”. Her current research interests cover innovations for the sustainability of agricultural value chains in Asia and of agricultural trade among the regions of Asia, Africa and Sud America. on the theme: “Rising China and sustainable value chains: the case of palm oil”.

Co-founder & CEO, Farmacy HK

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Board Member, Trade & Industry Advisory Board, Commerce & Economic Development Bureau, HKSAR Government Full Council Member and Vice Chairman of Advisory Group on Digital Economy & IT, Consumer Council BUD Fund Review Panel Member, PMC of HK Productivity Council Initiator & Board Member, K-Farm

Raymond is the co-founder and CEO of Farmacy HK Limited, the 1st “Agri-Prop” (agriculture and properties) tech company in Asia that builds smart indoor mobile farms in highly urbanized cities - enabling industries to grow what they want and harvest what they need onsite with the new generation of cloud-based and data-driven indoor farming technologies.

He also initiated with a local NGO to build K-Farm, the first urban community farm in Asia incorporating hydroponics, aquaponics, and organic farming systems, to promote sustainability education and social good purposes to the public at the harbourfront of Kennedy Town.

Prior to his journey in Farmacy, Raymond was a management consultant in leading international management consulting firms, specializing in strategy planning and execution, business transformation and turnaround. He has extensive experience in retail & FMCG, transportation & logistics, financial services, government & public sectors across 14+ countries in Asia-Pacific region.

Associate Director of Research Institute for Future Food (RiFood)

Associate Professor of Department of Food Science and Nutrition, PolyU

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Kevin Kwok has a PhD in marine biology and pollution. He joined PolyU since 2013 to help their development of food science research and academic programmes. One of his research foci is on how to improve aquaculture. He has developed various technologies to improve different aspects of aquaculture, including improvement of fish immune resilience, sensory qualities and nutrition of fish product, fish feed formulations, and sustainability practices. He recently also ran two training programmes developed to acquaint workers in the industry with new models of open ocean farms and provided practical training to over 140 participants and more than 30 has joined the aquaculture industry. In his talk he will shares his vision on sustainable aquaculture with examples of his research in laboratory and in the field.

Director - Waste Treatment & Recovery Business Line, General Manager of T· Park, Veolia

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Mr. Vincent Deleu joined Veolia in 1995. He has worked in the field of waste treatment and recovery ever since. In his early career, he predominantly worked in France, first as an engineer, then as the operation manager of a waste-to-energy facility in Orleans from 1991-2001 and as a project director from 2001-2010. He moved to Hong Kong in 2010 to be appointed general manager of T·Park, Hong Kong's Sludge Treatment Facility. Since 2022, he has been the director of waste treatment and recovery activities of Veolia in Hong Kong.

Director of Research Institute for Future Food (RiFood)

Professor of Department of Food Science and Nutrition, PolyU

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Prof. Ka-hing WONG is now a Full Professor of Department of Food Science and Nutrition at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Concurrently, he is appointed as Director of Research Institute for Future Food (RiFood; https://www.polyu.edu.hk/rifood/) to facilitate impactful and interdisciplinary research in Food Sustainability, Smart Technology and Functional Food Development as well as Nutrition and Human Health. By integrating the knowledge of food science, material chemistry and biotechnology, Prof. Wong’s current research interest is to develop innovative green solutions for local food waste management (e.g. upcycling spent coffee grounds/tea leaves into brand new sustainable 3D printing composite materials for green indoor furnishings). In addition to a productive publication record of over 100 top journal papers, conference abstracts/proceedings and book chapter as well as 10 China/US patents, Prof. Wong has secured over HKD 7.5 million funding support from government and food industry in both Hong Kong and Mainland China over the years. Apart from serving as the guest speaker in various public forums and expressing expert’s opinions on food safety and technology issues in different media channels, Prof. Wong also plays active roles in numerous local/national government departments and professional organizations in the fields of Food and Human Health.

Associate Professor of Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, PolyU

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Ir. Dr. Shao-Yuan (Ben) Leu is an Associate Professor in the Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU). He obtained his BS/MS degrees on Wood Processing Techniques from the National Taiwan University (1993-97) and PhD from the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department of University of California, Los Angeles, UCLA (2003-09). He was a lecturer at UC Riverside (2010-11) and a postdoctoral fellow at USDA Forest Products Laboratory in Madison, Wisconsin (2011-13). Dr. Leu’s research interests are in biorefinery and biological systems for wastes and wastewater treatment and its valorization for new generation biofuels and biochemicals. He is the establisher of the PolyU BioEnergy Lab, which aims to characterize the physiochemical properties of plant cell wall and forge biomass conversion theories into practices. From pretreatment, saccharification, fermentation, to lignin depolymerization, Dr. Leu’s team has developed a few techniques to convert plant biomass derived from woods, herbs, and even food wastes into useful products, such as bioethanol, 2,3- butandiols, and monolignols. The related studies may be particularly applicable for forestry and waste management in mega-cities like Hong Kong.