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Taiwan-born Eric Hsu never imagined his hard-earned chemistry degree would be put to use making tofu and soy products in Australia.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Taiwan, I was working for international companies like Dow Chemical,\u201d says the now 72-year-old pioneer, who immigrated to Australia in 1986. \u201cAt that time, I couldn\u2019t find the same kind of job, so I was looking at whatever opportunities I could.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hsu recalls one of his friends joking that they wanted to eat tofu, but there was \u201cnone on the market\u201d, and that he should try his hand at making it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI ate tofu, but I didn\u2019t know how to make it,\u201d Hsu says. \u201cAnyway, after researching, I realised, \u2018Oh, it\u2019s actually easy. It is just chemical reactions.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
In the beginning, Hsu and his wife Rachel started small, working from their garage and selling hand-pressed tofu to local grocers and Asian customers across Queensland. He made the tofu, while Rachel handled the business.<\/p>\n
Now, the Hsus are behind one of Australia\u2019s biggest soy-based food creators, King International. Their range of dairy-free, soy-based yogurt products was recently introduced to Hong Kong, sold under the brand Kingland.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n