Ng Lian Cheong/Satish Cheney, Channel NewsAsia 10 Dec 09;
SINGAPORE: For the enhancement of Singapore's food supply, two funds - the Food Diversification Fund and the Food Capability Development Fund – worth S$5 million are now available.
And applications for the funds are now open.
The Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) had announced the set up of the funds in July this year.
Visiting Singapore's largest commercial fish farm, located at Pulau Semakau, National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan said the two funds will help with diversification of Singapore's agricultural industry, and that more money will be provided if response is good.
The funds can be used for possible overseas contract farming and sourcing from non-traditional areas. It can also help with research and development in farming technology and production capabilities.
Mr Mah said: "All the experts tell us that food prices will be more volatile in future and that is something we have to prepare for. We will never be able to be totally dependant on local production, but we need to have some local production, and this local production needs to take into account our resources."
Taking everything into account, the fish farm plans to apply for the funding to help make a bigger splash for Singapore. It is already making waves in technology.
Joep Kleine Staarman, managing director, Barramundi Asia said: "Automatic feeding system instead of feeding by hand. There is also the vaccination system. Each fish has to be individually vaccinated. There is also an automatic system for that, and that will also save a lot of labour."
This seems to be the way of the future, and there is no doubt the funding will provide food for thought for the industry, which is out to cast a wider net.
AVA said with another four similar farms, Singapore can meet 15 per cent of its total fish consumption.
- CNA/sc
More Singapore farmed fish on menu
Republic's largest commercial fish farm a sign of things to come
Victoria Vaughan, Straits Times 11 Dec 09;
SINGAPORE'S calm and sheltered waters may be a haven for fish farming ventures - which will become more important as oceans are depleted due to over-fishing.
A sign of the future can be found south of Pulau Semakau, where Singapore's largest commercial fish farm has started to supply its seabass to local restaurants and supermarkets.
From 'super fry' engineered by local marine scientists, Barramundi Asia began harvesting the fish from its 14 sea cages in October as they reached the desired weight of about 1kg each. It has harvested 80tonnes so far.
Barramundi Asia will generate 500tonnes of fish this year and has a target of 3,000tonnes a year by 2012, which would represent about 86per cent of Singapore's current local fish production and 3per cent of total fish consumption.
Managing director Joep Kleine Staarman said Singapore provides a safe harbour for fish farming as it is not prone to disasters such as tsunamis, earthquakes and typhoons. Fish farming is difficult as it is susceptible to disaster and disease.
His previous company, Marine Harvest, had to shut down its Australian farm in 2005 after it fell victim to a cyclone and high spring tides which allowed three-quarters of its stocks to escape.
He has high hopes for the new venture in Singapore. 'We hope to be the first large farming operation for tropical food fish in the world,' said Mr Staarman, a Dutchman who is a permanent resident.
'There exists large operations for salmon and tilapia fresh water fish, but not for tropical fish.'
The company was granted a licence by the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) in May last year to farm fish in the designated waters off landfill site Pulau Semakau. It aims to set up a second fish farm in the area to produce another 3,000 tonnes by 2020, and to look at supplying other varieties such as red snapper.
Minister for National Development Mah Bow Tan said the Government wants to increase local fish production from 4per cent to 15per cent of consumption - about 15,000 tonnes of fish - and will require another four or five farms the size of Barramundi Asia.
In a visit to the farm yesterday, he launched the AVA's Food Fund, set up to help diversify and increase Singapore's food sources via co-funding of projects.
Mr Eric Tan, 52, a partner in Barramundi Asia, said: 'We will look to apply to the Food Fund as quickly as we can for funding for technologies such as automated fish feeding.'
The company uses European and Japanese sea cage fish farming technology.
The 2ha fish farm uses steel cages measuring 15m by 15m, at a depth of about 10m, which are able to contain 30,000 fish each. It has a yield of 80per cent as some fish are lost to disease despite being vaccinated.
The $3million farm is still installing cages, and will eventually have 36.
The super seabass fry come from the AVA's Marine Aquaculture Centre. They are genetically selected seabass that grow 15per cent faster than average.
The lcm fry spend two months in the company's nursery on Pulau Semakau before being transferred to the sea cages.
Fed twice daily on imported dry pellets, the fish take 18 to 24 months to reach the desired weight. They are then harvested and sold to Jurong Fishery Port or to restaurants. It is also available at local supermarkets.
Sheng Siong began purchasing 300kg a week about two to three months ago.
'Sales have been brisk,' said a supermarket spokesman.
There are 106 licensed coastal floating netcage fish farms in Singapore's coastal waters. Last year, the marine aquaculture industry produced 3,235 tonnes of food fish at a value of $11.4million.
Grouper, seabass and snapper are produced, as well as crabs, shrimp and mussels.
$5m fund for Singapore food stability
Straits Times 11 Dec 09;
THOSE in the food production business have a $5million fund to tap into to help them grow or import from more places so Singapore will not be so dependent on limited sources to feed its people.
The Food Fund, set up by the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA), has two arms: food-capability development and food diversification.
Food diversification focuses on cultivating new overseas food sources for rice, pork, chicken, fish, eggs and leafy vegetables. It will also co-fund studies on investment in overseas food zones and contract farming.
Related costs such as travel, manpower and professional services can also be covered by this fund.
The fund will also help develop research into how to increase productivity at the 266 farms here.
It aims to increase Singapore's supply of local produce in the next five years from 23per cent to 30per cent for eggs; 4per cent to 15per cent for fish; and 7per cent to 10per cent for leafy vegetables.
The research and development projects will focus on breeding programmes for food fish, development of high yield vegetable crops and post-harvest technology.
Minister for National Development Mah Bow Tan said that while Singapore would never be able to cater for the population's total food needs, the fund was an important factor in establishing stability in the country's food supply.
'Whenever there are disruptions in supplies from other countries, we need to have some buffer and we need to have some ability to manage the volatility of prices,' Mr Mah said.
Ms Koh Chern Peng of Seng Choon, one of Singapore's three egg farms, said the fund would help 'improve our processes and production to meet the more sophisticated expectations of customers'.
Mrs Ivy Singh-Lim, owner of Bollywood Veggies, the largest grower of bananas here, said the fund was no good if those in charge of it did not understand farming.
'They need to come down here and speak to the farmers to understand what is going on on the ground to see how much funding we actually need,' she said.
VICTORIA VAUGHAN
Applications are now open
Today Online 11 Dec 09;
SINGAPORE - Applications are now open for the $5-million fund that was set up to increase Singapore's resilience to fluctuations in global food supplies and prices.
The fund, which was set up in July, would support proposals that identify new and stable sources of food or maximise the productivity of farms here through research and development and mechanisation.
Citing the prevalent view among experts that food prices would be more volatile in future, National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan said: "That is something we have to prepare for. We'll never be able to be totally dependant on local production but we need to have some local production and this local production needs to take into account our resources."
Mr Mah was speaking yesterday on the sidelines of a visit to Barramundi Asia Farm and Nursery, Singapore's largest commercial fish farm which intends to apply for the funding as it vertically integrate its production chain.
Among the technologies required to achieve that include installing automatic feeding and vaccination systems, which would "save a lot of labour", said Barramundi Asia managing director Joep Staarman.
By 2012, the nursery would be producing some 3,000 tonnes of sea bass annually.
According to the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA), it would require another four farms of a similar size to meet the local farming target of 15 per cent of total fish consumption. "This can only be done through the effective use of modern technology for intensive farming," AVA noted in a press release.
In terms of diversification, the fund would focus on six "key food items" - namely rice, chicken, pork, fish, eggs and leafy vegetables. It would cover costs such as manpower, professional services and travel in supporting research on proposed investments. Satish Cheney and Ng Lian Cheong
