The industrial park sits on nearly 26 hectares of land in Ballard County and has been set up to use the carp acquired by the fish center. Twelve tracts of land inside the park are for sale.
On opening day, eight tracts were already claimed, with most of the investors coming from China.
Jiang Chenguang, an internet businessman from the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, launched the United Fisheries Group to process carp into fish balls and fish cakes for export to China. Two Rivers Foods will process smoked fish, and has already shipped a smoker to the site.
A business called Lakeside City has been formed to process carp into salted fish, while Eco Fish, which already existed, has hired fishermen to catch carp, process them and recycle waste into fertilizer.
Zhu Hongwei, a hotel and catering businessman from Jiangsu province, decided on the day the industrial park opened to buy one tract of land for food processing. "I will decide how to process the fish later," Zhu said.
Another Chinese investor, An Fengjie, also bought a tract and, like Zhu, has yet to decide what to do with it.
Xu Hao runs a successful environmental business and specializes in recycling waste materials in Yunnan province. He registered Novaland Group in Kentucky to turn all discarded fish parts into fertilizer for the U.S. market, helping to complete the fish-processing chain and make the park waste-free.
Novaland Group is Xu's first investment in the U.S., and he has spent about $500,000. "We will solve the industrial park's garbage problem by eliminating fish odor and recycling fish waste into fertilizer to make the park a healthy and safe place," he said.
The park has received a warm welcome from local officials, many of whom attended the opening ceremony. A Ballard County judge praised Yu for "taking lemons and making them into lemonade".
Erran Persley, commissioner of the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development, the state's primary agency responsible for encouraging job creation and retention, along with new investment, praised Yu's dedication to bringing fishing industries to the area.
"As we are negotiating at federal level, the important thing is to make sure relationships between provinces and states keep moving and business relationships keep growing. This project is an excellent example of the fact that at subnational level we can come together and make business happen between our two nations," Persley said.
Brooks, the Kentucky fisheries director, has high hopes that the park's incentive program will help reduce the Asian carp population, and said commercial fishermen should not worry about their prospects as far as Asian carp are concerned.
