Consumption jumped from 182 tonnes in 2006 to over 470 tonnes last year
Jermyn Chow, Straits Times 10 May 08;
AFTER four years of decline, the consumption of shark's fin spiked last year, with more than 470 tonnes eaten despite pleas from environmental groups for consumers to cut down.
The spike comes despite a 30 per cent rise in the price of shark's fin over the past five years.
A medium-grade dried shark's fin of about 10 to 15cm now costs about $500. In 2003, it cost only $300.
'Globally, there are fewer sharks in our waters that can be hunted now, so naturally prices go up,' said Mr Dennis Yio, director of Chin Guan Hong (Sharksfin), Singapore's biggest shark's fin supplier.
The home-grown company, which supplies shark's fin to about 40 hotels and restaurants here, saw a 20 per cent increase in sales last year.
Shark's fin consumption had gone down since 2003, dipping to 182 tonnes in 2006, according to the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA).
But 2007 was a 'boom year', and people had more money to spend, said the marketing manager of local shark's fin supplier Mui Lian, Ms Julia Yu.
Another possible reason: more people walking down the aisle and serving up the delicacy, which is popular at Chinese weddings. Close to 24,000 marriages were registered last year - the highest number since 1999.
Singapore is one of the world's top five shark's fin importers, alongside Hong Kong - the world's top consumer of shark's fin - China, Taiwan and Indonesia.
The popularity of the posh nosh is reflected in restaurants and hotels here.
Rama Sharksfin restaurant in Tanjong Pagar Road saw an increase in soup sales of between 20 and 30 per cent over the past five years, said its owner Tham Tin Hoe.
Hotels, including the Orchard Hotel and the Mandarin Oriental, also say shark's fin remains one of their most popular dishes at their Chinese restaurants and wedding banquets.
'Most of the couples' parents consider this dish a premium and without it, they would lose face,' said Mandarin Oriental's communications director Ruth Soh.
Still, the hotel ensures that the fins it buys are only from fish farms, and not those that are harvested in the wild, or 'finned', she added.
Just this week, the Singapore Environment Council and international conservation group WildAid renewed their calls for people to slice their shark's fin intake, adding that globally, between 40 million and 70 million sharks get killed for their fins each year.
Environmental groups say about one-third of shark species in the world - some 126 - are classified as being at risk of extinction or critically endangered.
Marine conservationist Michael Aw estimates that over 30 sharks have to be killed to feed a wedding banquet of 300.
'We must continue to educate the younger generation and make them see that sharks are guardians of the sea that ensure a balance in the food chain,' said Mr Aw, who heads environmental group Ocean and Environment. The killing of sharks throws the aquatic food chain balance off by allowing the fish they feed on to thrive.
That message is sinking in for some. There are couples who insist on alternatives to shark's fin soup at their wedding dinners, hotels admit, and at least two airlines - Singapore Airlines and Thai Airways International - stopped serving shark's fin on their flights in 2001.
But not everyone is ready to give up their favourite broth.
Mr Kelvin Young, 31, who is getting married at the Orchard Hotel next week, admits to being aware of the threat posed to sharks, but will be serving the dish anyway.
'Having shark's fin at the banquet adds a touch of class and more importantly, it makes my parents and guests happy,' he rationalised.
