 Welcome to St. Tecawaii, Asia in Reveal. I'm the host, Johnson Choi, the guest today, Jay. So Jay-so was born in Alaska, educated in UK. She, one time she wanted to be an attorney, but changed course and own her restaurants. And after a while, she decided to do something new. So she is doing something very interesting. It's to bring about degradable product from South Korea to Hawaii. In the past, we heard a lot of people bring stuff from Asia. And most of the time, we see people bring stuff from Asia, usually from China or from Vietnam, Indonesia, and Philippines. And most of the time, when we think about South Korea, we think about South Korea cosmetics and of course the car, including one of the Korean car too. So today, we are very fortunate to have Jay-so to be on our show. And Jay, welcome to the show. Thank you, Johnson, for having me. We have discussed a little bit about the new venture. In fact, the new product going to bring to Hawaii and throughout North America. Can you tell us a little bit about it? Sure. So we have created the world's first biodegradable, compostable food packaging item called 100Bio. And it's compostable plates, bowls, containers, clam shells for the food industry. We'd also like to penetrate the school districts, hotels, large food franchises, and even the local mom and pop shops. I understand that your product is where you need. In fact, you have some patterns to cover your invention without going to detail of your pattern or giving about your trade secret. How do you come about finding this unique idea and turning it into a pattern and then bringing the product into the market? Well, like any other product that requires a lot of technology and innovation, it takes years and years of R&D and studying and trial and tribulations. So we're close to a decade into this project. And after filing for four patents and being approved for four patents, we're now able to launch our product here in the United States and as well as Hawaii. So my understanding, your product is right now being made in South Korea. Correct. And you also mentioned that your raw material actually came from the United States. Correct. So we have many sources of raw material, but the two major sources is one major source from Asia and then the other source is from a large raw material provider in the United States. So how does the process go? I mean, right now you basically are selling to major distributor throughout the United States. And if someone, I know a lot of like I spent a lot of time in California and so are you and also in Hawaii. I noticed that even in the state of California, different cities and different counties, different rules in dealing with disposable material. Correct. Yes. So our product is commercially compostable and it composts in nine weeks, which means that there should be a local composting facility available. And the greatest thing about 100 Bio being able to launch this year is that now there's many resources for the end of life for the product. We are selling directly to local distributors as well as large franchise directly to consumers. So right now you said you're basically targeting primary the food service and also some of the industrial like you mentioned, the cafeteria or the hotel stuff like that, right? Yeah. So currently we are targeting the food service industry because our product is mainly food service, i.e. plates, bowls, cups, clamshells. Eventually we'd like to grow. However, for initial stages we are targeting food service. I know a lot of times that a lot of supermarket they don't even have to give a plastic package or even paper package in some city and they encourage people to bring their own container or their own bags to carry the stuff. So in terms of cost wise, comparable. I mean, I know it's probably higher than the good old plastic but how do you feel the acceptable in terms of the industries? It would be nice if we could all take a to-go container with us and carry it with us and pack our food in it. But the fact of the matter is we're in a time where everybody's on the go. We've got families who have sporting events and they've got soccer practice and piano lessons and so these families are on the go and they're very busy. The pack-and-go meals are very popular. Fast food industry has grown. So our product is timely, especially with the composting programs that are now implemented in various cities. As far as comparison and price goes, we are competitive with certain plastics depending. We are competitive with other compostable products except for sugar cane, the gas. Eventually we'd like to be competitive with all plastic and then of course eventually we'd like to be competitive with EPS foam. I see that. So the end of mine is to be price competitive but to also be able to provide a product that is sustainable. So far I assume you did some test marketing with people that buy new product and you do have a sales team in the mainland and you also have yourself and another person you mentioned that are doing the sales in Hawaii. So far how's the kind of impression your end-user are saying? I mean say for example if you have some large fast food restaurant that want to use a product, I'm sure that you probably can put the name on the container and just like, you know, stuff like that. Surely, of course. So we can customize for large franchise who prefer to have their name embedded in our product. But we've had some very good reception from the general public. PLA, which is what our product is made from, it's not unique to the food industry. There's tons of products out there that contain PLA but to be able to use 40% less raw material and to be able to foam it then the product is lighter. It's more insulating, shock absorbing. So those are the feedbacks that we're getting. You know, when you drop a carton of eggs, what is the retention rate of the damage? So we've had some really good feedback on it. Because nowadays when you look at a lot of people, like you mentioned, you go to a small market, you have those pre-packaged food that for the busy moms and dads that pick it up and go home and microwave it and how is it? Can you microwave your product and how does it... Our product is microwavable, but just like any other product, we don't recommend anybody microwaving it. But it is microwavable. It is non-toxic, so even if you accidentally ingest it, you're gonna be okay. If your dog ingested it because you had your takeout food in it, he's gonna be okay. So I guess if you drop it in the ocean and the fish eat it, it's okay. If the fish eat it, it's okay, but of course we don't want people to have the idea that they can put it in the ocean because that is our end in mind because of all the waste that's in the water. Because what I think we notice is like when I travel, you know, like going to some cities, when I go to like other why harbor when all the yachts is parked and you see all these garbage, you know, probably non-disposable or that is floating in the ocean and nobody seems to clean up. And then I go to a city like Sydney, Australia. I mean the ocean front is so beautiful and there's hardly any garbage. I don't know whether they have a better city to clean up the garbage or they are using disposable products. Well, Australia is a big market for us as well as Trinidad, Tobago, the Caribbean islands. So I find a pattern that in areas where they have a very small real estate, they implement strong government programs to recycle and to compost and to be cognizant of our waste. Well, you mentioned you were born and raised in Alaska and Hawaii so attracted to you and we spend a lot of time between LA and Hawaii and you have a home in Hawaii too, actually. Well, why not Hawaii, right? It's fantastic here. It's beautiful. The culture is wonderful. The people are very, very kind here and it's easy to grow family here. It's easy. So how do you look at Hawaii in terms of... We always talk about Hawaii in the middle of the Pacific, right? The state has been selling that that we should be able to connect both the West Coast and East Coast and make Hawaii a little bit more dynamic. We try different stuff. We try to be high-tech. That's why I think that Hawaii is one of the early creation by J.F.E. there way before we talked about Act 221 when we could invest in high-tech, including your product. Your product was here for R&D. Like 15 years ago, you could have people invest in your R&D and the investor could get 100% return on the investment through tax credit. Right, 15 years ago if this came out, then we would have been able to have a large help from the government. So Hawaii now is the middle Pacific and as I didn't say, we have to basically ship everything here, the vegetable, your stuff, the product and other things. And how do you see maybe South Korea and Hawaii can maybe do more stuff besides maybe cosmetic and car? I know you mentioned about tourism. Maybe you can enlighten us what Hawaii can do to make it more friendly and more excited for the young Korean tourists that are actually doing stuff. Hawaii is already fun and exciting, but I do notice a lot more Korean tourism here in Hawaii and I'm happy to see that. In Korea in the past, we've stuck with just traveling locally, going down to the islands on the south of the peninsula, but now I see more of the younger generation wanting to retain more experiences. So rather than spending money on clothing and purses and shoes, I find that the younger generation are spending money on experiences, so traveling, food, things of that nature. And so Hawaii has been an all-time dream of many Koreans to travel to. A lot of times it's triggered by what's seen on TV and in dramas, which is another thing that Korea is famous for. Oh yeah, the K-dramas. The K-dramas, yes, absolutely so. All over the world. Actually, I had friends that sometimes would go out for the phone or ladies and say, oh, I have to go home by certain time. Of course, now you have DVR, you can record it. And online streaming. Right. But a lot of the traveling in the Korean dramas used to be in Hawaii. So I feel like a lot of the younger couples that are getting married come to Hawaii and they do their honeymoon here and vacation here, repeat vacationing. They want to experience the American life and this is almost as close to America as they can get without going on to the mainland. And plus, traveling from Korea, it's eight hours away. It's fantastic. Right, that's close by. Yes. What can we do in Hawaii that can make it even more attractive, I mean, for the tourists? I mean, if you are a... The ocean is not enough? Well, you know... The weather? Sun, sea and surf, there's a lot of places like Bali. You can go to Bali, Indonesia. They have beautiful beaches and there are other places in Asia. But of course coming to America is a little bit more expensive too, you know. But everybody has a budget to work with, right? But of course money is no option. You can go to Paris for dinner and then go to London for whatever, you know. But people have a budget. So sometimes we try to... We were talking a lot about making a better experience for visitors and then seeing you on the South Korean... Well, it's hard to say. I mean, I guess if you infiltrated the ocean with the chocolate syrup and enticed people to come here and give them more of a reason. But the place is beautiful here. You know, a lot of the Koreans love coming here for the weather. The tranquility. Because Korea, for the most part, when you think of Korea, you think of Seoul and it's very busy in the city. I mean, it's hustle bustle and people are elbowing each other on the subway. So when they come here, I feel like they truly do feel like they're on vacation. So if we created some more traffic, maybe more vacation packages. Koreans are very foreign to this place and so if we created some more vacation packages it would maybe push them further to want to come over and not feel the tension of planning a car or hotel and etc. Okay, we are probably going to a short commercial and so when we come back I will ask you more questions about your viewpoint about Korea performance economically in Asia. It has to be one of the bright stars in Asia. So we'll be back in a few minutes. Hi, I'm Ethan Allen, host of Likeable Science here on ThinkTekHawaii.com. I hope you'll join me every Friday at 2 p.m. to discover what's likeable about science. Aloha, I'm Kirsten Baumgart-Turner and I'm fortunate to be able to host Sustainable Hawaii at ThinkTekHawaii.com. I hope you'll join in with us every Tuesday from 12 noon to 1 p.m. to see the interesting people we have to share with you their information. Aloha. Hi, I'm Keeley Ikeena, president of the Grassroot Institute. I'd love you to join us every week, Mondays at 2 o'clock p.m. for Ehana Kako. Let's work together. We report every week on the good things going on in our state as well as the better things that can go on in the future. We have guests covering everything from the economy, the government, and society. See you Mondays on Ehana Kako at 2 o'clock p.m. Until then, I'm Keeley Ikeena. Aloha. Welcome back to ThinkTekHawaii, an Asian Reveal. The guest today is Jay So. I'm Johnson Choi, the host. Before we went to the break, we talked about South Korea. South Korea used to be one of the four dragons. South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore. For a long time, the four dragons are the sparks in Asia. But lately, there are some challenges on some of the dragons that we don't want to go into. I just want to focus on South Korea right now. I see a lot of good stuff happening in South Korea. You can, and Nathan, since you travel to South Korea so often. Well, I'm not an economics major, but there's a lot of even in front of your eyes, there's a lot of visual growth within Korea. Of course, years ago, Korea had suffered, and it was essentially a developing country. And now, we're 11th in the world in economy. We're 7th in the world as far as import and export. And 4th is in Asia, right behind Japan and China. Our economy is stagnantly growing, and although if you ask the locals, which is what I do quite frequently, how do you feel about the economy here? And they'll say, oh, we're suffering, we're suffering. But the economy is doing fantastic. A lot of exporting. So the largest exporter of Korea would be semiconductors. And then, of course, technology. And of course, like mentioned before, automobiles. I feel that with the advancement of technology, we've been able to stream Korean dramas. So there's a lot of exposure for the Korean culture and the food and the fashion and K-Beauty. So I feel like they've made a lot of pavement into the rest of the world to say, hey, this is what we're doing here. And a lot of people are following it. K-Beauty has really grown in the United States even within the last three years. I see a lot of companies that are selling K-Beauty and a lot of companies that are trying to export out of Korea and import into the U.S. So I feel like the economy is very... I still remember not too long ago to be 10, 15 years ago when we go out and shop for electronics as opposed to like TV and microwave ovens like that. It's almost I would say 90% Japanese brand. The Sony, the Panasonic, the Hitachi. And nowadays, if you go to the major store like Best Buy or Costco and you find Samsung, almost have everything. Buy with free trade, that store, often car, whatever. They have it. So I can see Korea has been getting very smart. In fact, they are smart with so many free trade agreements of so many countries where you mention about rate. So that helps, right? Well, the growth with free trade agreement now where it used to be just Korea, U.S. has expanded to Korea, ASEAN, Korea, China, Korea, Canada. So the free trade agreement I feel like now Korea has a free trade agreement with everybody which is great. But a lot of the reasoning for the growth in technology is said because of the high population concentration and what that's implemented is a competition for education. And also Korea has a very high standard for education. So the pressure is really onto the pupils where they have to really think of something innovative and creative and be really competitive within the books in order to be able to advance. Well, you mentioned Korea has a very good education system. I have to ask for an opinion because Taiwan also have a lot of universities. But Taiwan with Chinese 2 million people 300 universities. And the biggest company they have is too many college graduates, too many masters and too much PhD and not enough a blue collar worker that ends up a bachelor degree person will probably get paid almost as if you can get the same pay if you just finished high school. So does Korea has the usual placing the graduate into industry jobs that for them? Sure, absolutely. The labor cost in Korea is right about neck and neck with the labor cost in the United States. So I would say it's pretty competitive. So so how many universities do you have in the major one? The top maybe, you know. I'm not too familiar with how many universities. I feel like there's another one that pops up. Which one is the top one that maybe like in Japan, you know, all the people who participated in Tokyo or something. Of course there's Seoul National University and then Korea University. Yeah. We were talking before the show that, you know, Korea is now joined the Chinese infrastructure and it was interesting that I watched the news about three months ago that because South Korea cannot have the train go through North Korea, right? So what they do South Korea is if they have put on barge basically and cross a short ocean distance on go on shore and then put on train and then go to Eastern Europe and save them a lot of money and time. I think when we talk about logistics and freight it's a great idea but as mentioned it would be very difficult to put a railway through North Korea especially with the current hostile environment. So if we put it on barge and we shipped it to China and then from China would we be able to put it on a railway all the way to Europe? It'd be fantastic and I know that they've been implementing that for a while. How much money can we save on freight cost? How much time can we save on logistics? So if that was to become a implemented program I would absolutely love to ship Europe and China on a railway. On the topic of transportation you know one of the trends that difficult for us to have manufactured facilities in Hawaii one thing is the land cost even though we can get nothing state land you're still talking about freight cost in other words because if you make a stop and send it to a different store you send it to California which we have some client that because the raw material is in California and then when they have to ship it back to Hawaii or they have to ship it to Maine it doesn't make sense for them to come back to Hawaii. So how do you feel if the transportation cost interstate not to international could be lower? Would you say you would have more people who want to? So starting in September end of August beginning of September we are exporting out of Korea our 100 bioproduct and we have containers coming straight to Honolulu which will help in freight cost rather than going to the mainland stopping over and then going to Hawaii. However freight cost to Hawaii even if I was to ship directly from Asia it's four times the cost than shipping to the mainland. So the cost of living in Hawaii of course a lot of it's because we have to import everything here and we have to suffice not just the one million people that live here but the eight million tourists that come yearly. So it is very costly to live here and to try to import and export out of here. So in order to reduce the cost our 18 month goal is to eventually manufacture in the United States because our raw material is from the United States and that way we can be competitive with plastic as far as competitive nature in our products and being able to be presentable in the food service industry. So if our raw materials from the States literally we can just manufacture the raw material and then have it jump over to our facility and then we can make our product whereas right now we're exporting the raw material making our packaging in South Korea and then importing it back. So we're paying a lot of money in freight. So we'd really look forward to that end in mind to be able to manufacture in the United States and of course to create jobs in the United States as well. Well I guess you know people call that a price of paradise. It is the price of paradise. I don't know that that is a good term to describe it. I mean I guess everything is more expensive here. Well hey listen if you've got the CEN 365 days a year I don't mind paying 10 dollars for a cup of coffee. Well as far as the pay is comparable to California that's fine but unfortunately our pay scale. A very good example is my wife moved to California nine years ago and for the same jobs she's working in Hawaii her pay in California is almost double. But the price of living is comparable. Comparable. Every time when I especially vegetables I like to go to Chinatown in Oakland or San Francisco to buy vegetables. Every time when I come back I try to go to the supermarket I have a price shock because everything is wow my god you know. Right so ten years ago when I started in the restaurant business in Alaska we suffered the same problems because we had to barge the vegetables and fruit up north much like in Hawaii you do but you also have that two week lag. The vegetables stay on a truck or on a barge for two weeks and so you don't have that forgiveness of is my fruit going to last in the fridge for a week which most likely it doesn't because it already had suffered the two weeks of getting up there. So here in Hawaii it would be nice if we had a lot more sustainable programs as far as fruit and vegetables go so that we can at least support local farmers and try to get cheaper produce. Well actually there are some farmers that are very creative and doing very well. There are a lot of them from Southeast Asia. They have quite a huge farm there. And to your point it's hard to say that we're going to manufacture in California because California is very expensive. We ideally like to go to Omaha or somewhere in the Midwest because there's a lot more real estate abundant and I have a feeling that we might need a lot more real estate. We are at max capacity right now so with the three machines that we have In fact if you want to do manufacturing and if you can create jobs I mean there's a lot of city and state outside of California we need to give you free land, free building, tax credit. Anything free is great but nothing is free in this world. Well they keep you credit. Because I know Chinese companies are actually not going to California and not going to Seattle they're going to... I say how can you guys operate because the package is too good to turn it down. The cost is very important so you want to minimize your cost. Of course absolutely which is the whole purpose of manufacturing in this state is to reduce the cost for the end users. Well our program is coming to an end and if you have any last words you want to tell our audience. For any other questions or inquiries please log on to www.tagpackaging.com or 100bio.com for more information. Thank you. Thank you Jay. Thank you for coming. Thank you so much.