Episode 14: How Mei Yong’s MyPlantCo is repurposing oats through collaboration

Amie & Angeline sit down with Mei Yong, CEO at MyPlantCo to discuss her FMGCG journey that has led to pioneering sustainable oat-based technologies that could transform how the world consumes the grain.

Transcript

Amie:

Welcome to Women Transforming Food, a monthly podcast brought to you by G100 and Inside FMCG, exploring the stories of inspiring women shaping the food industry. Today I'm joined by co-host G100 Mission Million Angelina, today I'm joined by co-host.

Today I'm joined by my co-host, G100 Mission Million, Angeline Acharya, Asia Pacific Chair of the Food Systems Innovation and Resilience Wing and Mei Yong, CEO of MyPlantCo. Welcome ladies.

Mei:

Hello, hi. 

Amie:

May is a true innovator on a mission to redefine how we all nourish ourselves and the planet. She's spent over two decades in the FMCG space, building multiple successful brands and recently won the 2025 Food and Beverage Accelerator Innovation and Entrepreneurship Award. Currently, she's pioneering sustainable oat-based technologies that could transform how the world consumes grains.

The company is changing the way we eat the humble oat by transforming the staple high protein, high fiber formats that include oat rice, noodles and pasta. May's journey is a masterclass in collaborative leadership and she's here to share how partnerships, not just individual effort, are the key to building a sustainable food future. May, your career from building successful brands like Turban Chopsticks and Carto to pioneering this oat based technology is a real testament to the power of collaboration.

Was there this specific aha moment in your career where you realised that working with others was the only way to accelerate growth and innovation?

Mei:

Yes, definitely. There was quite a few aha moments. Firstly, I'd like to thank you both, Amie and Angeline, for having me on this podcast. It's amazing how you continue to champion females in this space, so thank you. I think one of the aha moments was before COVID-19, I wanted to get into a new brand, a new commodity. What we did was we really championed things that we grow here in Australia on our soil.

So we looked at every grain. We looked at wheat, we looked at lupins, we looked at red lentils, we looked at things that we grew here. Everything at that point in time was pointing towards oats. And at that moment, there wasn't much that had been done with oats and we really wanted to look at innovating in this space. So I was there with my food techs. And we realised we really needed to get into the oat space. So we started looking at, you know, what we could value add. Currently things were sitting in breakfast, you know, granola. We wanted to move out of breakfast.

So we started to look at new formats and started developing, you know, pasta and noodle varieties, and started doing all that in-house. We then realised that, you know, with a smaller team, there was quite a lot of research. There was quite a lot of market insights that had to happen. So for us, you know, we realised, I sat there and I was waiting. I was waiting on some critical feedback from, from the team. 

And I really realised at that point in time that it was going too slow and that we needed to piggyback off of a larger, broader team that had spent, you know, enormous amounts of time on research in oats that were playing in the space already. I'm not a farmer, I'm not in ag, but I wanted to get into the space. So I think the only way we could do that was to collaborate and, and to look at who was out there and who was working in this space. And that's when we found that AEGIC had already pre-developed some excellent IP in oat rice, noodles and pasta.

So that was a new beginning for us. We put our hands up straight away early on and showed early interest in that IP. And that was really pivotal to our growth.

Angeline:

And May, I loved how you recognised that value of collaboration so early on, right? But we also know it's another thing to actually do it and to trust others with your vision. Could you tell us about a very specific moment when you had to embrace that vulnerability to bring others with different skill sets into your journey? What did you, what did that experience teach you about collaborative leadership?

Mei:

I think, I think for me, you know, having a smaller team and having, you know, multiple brands, you know, I realised that I was never the smartest person in any room. And I really need more smarts around me. I needed more people that were, that championed their fields, that were experts in their fields. So, you know, the need to do that, you know, came upfront quite early on. So I think for us is, you know, we chose a partner, we chose FABBA to help us. They were technical experts in accelerating our growth in the technical spaces of governance, compliance and more further technical research. 

And also they had a whole team dedicated to market insights. So when we shared our project with them, I think that was quite difficult. I think females were conditioned to, you know, have everything bundled perfectly and provide everything perfectly to those teams. But what I realised is that when you're collaborating, you're inviting others to be part of your vision. And that doesn't have to be perfect. That doesn't have to all be all completely ready. You're bringing people in because you need help. When you accept that, I think that brings a lot of peace. It brings a lot of trust building. You bring people more to stronger alignment and vision. And that's where you can really drum fantastic results together. So I think for me, you know, it's really identifying those things upfront and making those necessary changes in the way that you think and the way you frame your mind.

Amie:

Yeah, and you mentioned that your work with the now AEGIC, and I'm assuming both of you know exactly, yes, exactly what this is. But for me, the journalist, it's the Australian Export Grains Innovation Centre. And to commercialise proprietary oat technology. And this represents, you know, that fascinating model of research industry collaboration. I'm keen to understand how do you build the frameworks for governance and collaboration that allow you to move faster than the traditional public sector approaches while maintaining the integrity of the innovation process? Because as you just said, you bring them into your vision, but keen to understand how that works.

Mei:

Yeah, so AEGIC are a research body and they're specialists. They really champion, you know, the grains industry and what we can do differently. So they already have an excellent frame of mind. But as a private business, we focus on commercialisation. We're about bringing research, bringing the research teams together, along with our teams to bring things to life. So I think for us, it's setting the right frameworks, understanding at the beginning, we put a strong emphasis on trust, on relationship building and the IP proprietary system and the management of all those things. I think having those clear agreements of ownership upfront and identifying those risks are really important. That way you can kind of avoid bottlenecks that come later on. So I think it really works best as a partnership and the right relationships really benefit from that. So I think for us, you know, we really need to focus on understanding that it's not about perfection that we're striving for. We're really striving for progress. 

And progress is really having the right parameters in place early upfront that you feel comfortable with. You know, at the end of the day, as a business, you have to feel comfortable with sharing and bringing someone on the journey. And you still take carriage of that. And taking carriage of that means that, you know, you can, you can also direct and shape the way you want to work together.

Amie:

I think it allows you to play to your strengths as well, right? Know the role that you play within that partnership and collaboration. Because I think many people could be guilty of feeling as though you need to be the smartest person in the room or whatever it might be. But knowing that you can really play to your strengths within that and what that looks like is so important.

Mei:

I think it's really important there, Amie. I think understanding and respecting, you know, what the other party brings is really important because you brought them on board for a reason, not for you to tell them exactly every single detail of what needs to be done. It's for them to open up, have a safe space. They can share more of the work to help you frame better decisions and set better frameworks into the future. I think for us, we're doing such important work in changing really shaking up what this commodity grain looks like and what it looks like these oats coming out of Australia. So for us to do that, we have to get the right thinking on board and get that in early on board because then people are more connected to the mission in what we're doing.

Angeline:

I love some of the things you said there and no doubt, it set you up for the next collaboration that you put forward. So congrats on the 5.6 million co-investment between your business and Western Australia with Queensland's food and beverage accelerator, Farber. That represents such a fascinating model of what I would call a national innovation collaboration happening right?

What advice, May, would you give to other food industry leaders about building these types of strategic partnerships that enable that cross-pollination of expertise?

Mei:

Thank you. I think, Angeline, you know, we sit in a state where, you know, we're quite removed from the rest of Australia. And for us, we don't have all the skills in this state. You know, what we identified early on was that we needed technical experts, not just their minds, but we also needed specialist equipment, millions of dollars of equipment that weren't sitting in our state. So how do we fast-track that? You know, we weren't able to purchase all that equipment, then have the teams learn everything. We had to tap on to this federal government initiative where we focused on commercialisation. I think what we need to understand is that we don't need to work in silos. 

If we want to send something out of Australia, like our oat rice, for example, and represent this innovative product out of the country, we need to work as one. We need to work as an Australian innovative party. And that means that if those, if that technical knowledge and if that technical team sits outside of Western Australia, then you need to tap onto it. I think my advice for, you know, a lot of, a lot of leaders here is that, you know, you have to see that the purpose of collaboration, it's more like a partnership. You're bringing people on board. You're bringing people on board with clear goals and a focus. And, and that's why we really focus on more workshop style, so we can really engage in more learning together. And that big ideas, big dreams like this need more people at the table and more people to come on board to create the change required.

Angeline:

That's fantastic advice.

Amie:

And it is, and this is a very big idea. So your oat based products offer significant sustainability benefits. And I think you mentioned that whilst Western Australia produces nearly 50% of Australia's oat production. Is that right?

Mei:

Yeah, that's correct. WA, correct.

Amie:

Yeah, it's massive. Yeah, so when you're working to replace traditional grains in Asian markets, in global markets, how do you collaborate with local partners to change these sometimes deeply rooted dietary habits? And what role does collaboration play in overcoming any kind of cultural or market resistance there?

Mei:

Yeah, so a couple of things there. Yes, so we are one of the biggest, I think we're the fourth largest producer of oats to the world. And for us, I see it as a golden opportunity to unlock that value-add proposition here in Australia. But the beauty about collaboration is that you need to access more information. You need to access more learnings. Food is not just about nutrition.

You know, for what we're doing here is understanding how do people eat rice. We need a product that cooks like rice and eats like rice. That way we're going to get more adoption from consumers. That's really, really important. So you need to find, you know, the more, the collaborative teams to co-create these understandings for you so you can deliver a better product to market. 

So for us, for us at the moment, you know, we, we, we partnered with FABA and they have, they have two teams that, you know, one's a market insights and one's a technical team that really are here to accelerate and help us. If we need to understand how the Japanese eat rice, they will scrape all the data necessary to help us understand. Does the Japanese market like, you know, texturally firm rice? Do they like the rice to look incredibly white? Do they like their rice packaged in a certain way? Are they cooking in a rice cooker or are they putting it in the microwave?

It's very important. We jump on and work with teams that are set up already that do this for a living so we can actually understand and fast-track our understanding to make better decisions.

Angeline:

I really love that co-creation, Mei. I think good on you for bringing that, but also the capability that's available as you're sharing that through FABA and other places as well. So my question, Mei, is you kind of emphasize that meaningful change comes through collaboration rather than the individual effort and the importance of thinking big without that self-imposed limitations that sometimes we all get right?

How do you encourage especially women in food and agriculture to embrace a collaborative leadership? And what advice would you have for those who might feel they need to prove themselves by going it alone?

Mei:

I think it's a, I think it's a great question. I think, you know, as females, we try to do a lot ourselves, you know, as mothers, as nurturers, as homemakers, we're constantly multitasking, multitasking and taking a lot ourselves. But, you know, there's, there's a lot of beauty. You know, everyone's build your tribe, build your community. That's what you're doing. You need to share your vision and build that community because you can accelerate and you can magnify your voice and your impact much larger.

So I think my advice to a lot of females is that, you know, be curious, have the conversation, pick up the phone, call someone and really step out of your comfort zone. If you're not, if you don't have those touch points where you have people surrounding you that you can reach out to, look on LinkedIn, you know, an email goes a long way. You know, hit someone on LinkedIn, you can, you know, reach out to another contact and ask, how else can I get in touch? And, and, and then, you know, the potential of collaboration and someone coming on board to help your mission, it's just a conversation. It just happens. So I think expand and really find a way that you can empower your mind to make those changes because it all starts from your mind.

Angeline:

Absolutely. And that curiosity, as you said, right? Some brilliant nuggets of advice there. Thank you.

Amie:

Yeah, and taking this a little bit more broadly, you've spoken about building a legacy through collaboration and strengthening voices for change by building teams and partnerships. Looking ahead, how do you envision collaborative models like your WA-FABA partnership becoming the standard for how the food industry sort of tackles the biggest challenges we face? And what would widespread adoption of collaborative innovation mean for food transformation more globally, in your opinion?

Mei:

I think there's a lot of research that's done across Australia and globally on food sustainability. We sit in a space where we focus on sustainability and food security and also nutrition density. So when you can actually unlock the minds of other players in the field, you actually start to broaden your thinking.

And by broadening your thinking, you see opportunities, and opportunities lead to better outcomes. So I think for us is that, you know, for us to do that, you have to see that, you know, this synergy, having the shared goals is more wins. For us, if we do this well, we're winning as a country. We're not winning as Western Australia or Brisbane, where FABA is based. We're winning for Australia, because we sit in a place where we have the opportunity to feed the world better. And we feed the world better with an oat grain where it's farmed and produced in a much more sustainable way than rice. So for us, it's about shifting our thinking and opening our minds and tapping in on other resources that can help us do this.

Angeline:

Fabulous. And on that note, Mei, so food industry leaders out there who are maybe hesitating to reach out to potential collaborators, and you mentioned some great example of the IP that was at AEGIC and how you connected that with what is at FABA. What's one piece of advice you would give them to take that very first step towards building the meaningful partnerships like yours?

Mei:

I think it starts with one idea. It does not have to be perfect. It doesn't have to be ready. It's one concept. I think it's about being brave and opening up and sharing and talking to people about it. Having that conversation, I think, you know, for us to understand more, even with yourself to understand more about what you're working on, it's about talking to more people in this space. I'm always curious in every room I go to, I'm always curious what people are working on, what they do for a living and what their passion is. 

Because you just don't know where these conversations, where they lead to, and the introductions that lead to better change. I know that when I was, before I connected with FABA, it took me three conversations with different researchers and different teams before I got introduced to FABA. So it just shows that one conversation, you might not be going into conversation for a certain outcome it might lead you to a different path and might pivot and go somewhere else. But it's learning to be open and having that chat and, you know, giving it a shot.

Angeline:

Fabulous.

Amie:

Love it. Well, thank you, May and Angeline and a big thank you for listening to this episode of Women Transforming Food. If you've enjoyed this episode, feel free to like and subscribe wherever you tune into your podcasts.