Newspaper

Mr. Shiwei Li, Executive Director of Dezhou Gushen Protein Technology Co., LTD.

Reporter Zhining Zhang, Ranchen Zhang

May 23, 2023

In recent days, Mr. Shiwei Li, executive director of Dezhou Gushen Protein Technology Co., LTD., has been particularly busy, since coming back from the exhibition of Vitafood Europe hold in Geneva, Switzerland in 12^th,May, the phone of consultation and order has kept ringing.

"Not only old customers have added orders, but more than 10 new customers have signed cooperation agreements." Mr. Shiwei Li introduced that the company's current annual process capacity of soybean reaches 600,000 tons, ranking first in the domestic industry, and the products are exported to 96 countries and regions such as the United States, the EU and ASEAN. In the first four months of this year, the export value is US $28.9 million.

Dezhou Gushen Protein Technology Co., Ltd. is located in the Economic Development Zone of Lingcheng District. It is a protein and nutritional food enterprise mainly engaged in the processing of domestic Non-GMO soybeans and the production of high-end soybean protein in the market. Why are products selling globally?

"Developing multiple types of products tailored to customer demand to meet the demand of high-end application markets through differentiation; Establishing subsidiaries, offices, and warehouses abroad to eliminate intermediate traders and directly supplying to end users; Focusing on major customers, and many well-known international food companies have cooperated with us." Mr. Shiwei Li said.

Mr. Shiwei Li, who is 42 years old, has a special relationship with soybeans. In 1983, the former Ling County Grain Bureau established a feed company, his father Mr. Denglong Li was serving in the company. Afterwards, the company restructured and Gushen Group was founded by Mr. Denglong Li. Since then, Mr. Shiwei Li has heard and been in contact with soybeans the most. His words and experiences inspired his strong interest in the soybean processing industry.

At the end of 2005, after completing his master's degree in the UK, Mr. Shiwei Li returned to Gushen Group to help his father manage the company. He found that well-known foreign companies focused on high-end applications such as protein bars and protein drinks, with profits far higher than those of their domestic companies. After realizing this gap, he established Dezhou Gushen Protein Technology Co., Ltd., focusing on the high-end soybean protein market, purchasing advanced equipment, hiring domestic high-end talents, and conduct product research and development for international brands. The new product quickly gained recognition upon its launch and was widely used in fields such as protein bars and protein drinks, successfully opening the door to the international market.

After the initial success, Mr. Shiwei Li established long-term cooperative relations with universities and institutions such as Jiangnan University, Northeast Agricultural University, and National Soybean Engineering and Technology Center, and jointly carried out technical research. A number of technical achievements broke the foreign monopoly and made breakthroughs in the functional improvement of protein products and comprehensive utilization of by-product resources in the domestic non-GMO soybean processing industry chain. At the same time,  setting up subsidiaries and offices in the Netherlands, Japan, the United States and other countries, and participate in international exhibitions actively to help enterprises "go global". In 2022, the company's export volume reached $135 million, this was a yearly increase of 22.39%.

"We further processed soy protein isolate and developed textured fibrous protein, which has the characteristics of fat free, easy absorption, and good taste. The vegetarian meat products made from it are highly favored by the market, " Mr. Shiwei Li introduced the company's new product.

As of now, the company has independently developed 78 varieties in 33 major categories, including soy protein isolate and soy protein concentrate, ranking first in the domestic soy protein industry in terms of industrial scale and chain. Not only that, Mr. Shiwei Li is also working on the whole industry chain: extracting soybean polysaccharides from soybean fibers; Extracting soybean lecithin from oil residue; After extracting soybean polysaccharides from soybean fibers, the waste is processed into plant cat litter, which increases the added value by 40%.