Jack Ma: With investment in fishery and agriculture, Jack Ma turns to farming: Report

Jack Ma, the founder and former chairman of Alibaba Group Holding, is venturing into the fishery and agriculture sectors in China through a newly-established start-up. The start-up, named “1.8 Meters Marine Technology (Zhejiang) Co,” was incorporated in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, with a registered capital of 110 million yuan (US$15 million), the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported.

The South China Morning Post is owned by Alibaba. According to the SCMP report, the majority shareholder of the start-up is Hong Kong-based 1.8 Meters Technology Holding Ltd, holding an 80 percent stake.
Jack Ma, once China’s richest person, had vanished from public life in late 2020 after giving a speech criticising China’s regulatory system, an event widely regarded as a trigger for the crackdown on industry.

However, in recent years, Ma has embarked on multiple international trips to explore sustainable food production methods. He has been a visiting professor at Tokyo College, focusing on sustainable agriculture and food production. During his travels, he studied fisheries, tuna farming in Japan, and visited a sea shrimp farming factory in Thailand, the report said.
Moreover, in July 2022, Ma visited a university in the Netherlands to learn about improving sustainable food production, following a similar European tour the previous year, all of which further fueled his interest in the agriculture sector.
Having been once the wealthiest individual in China, Jack Ma’s current net worth is estimated to be around $30 billion, which is less than half of his peak fortune before the setback caused by the disruption of the world’s largest initial public offering in 2020, as reported by Bloomberg’s wealth index. Ma’s still China’s fifth-richest person, according to the Bloomberg index.