Growing demand from customers hooked on freshness of local fish
Jessica Lim, Straits Times 30 Apr 10;
MORE than ever, the catch of the day is now coming from a local farm.
As consumers get hooked on local seafood produce, supermarket chains like Sheng Siong and FairPrice are buying more fish stocks from local breeders.
Sheng Siong now sells 400kg of live local fish a day, up from 100kg two years ago.
And selection has increased with demand.
It used to stock only Asian seabass, but has now added grey mullet and milkfish to the list of local choices.
Singapore's largest supermarket chain FairPrice, with 98 outlets, stocks more than 10 varieties of locally farmed fish, including golden pomfret and black tilapia. It stocked five varieties last year.
Sales have risen 20 per cent from the figure in the middle of last year, it said.
Local farms, which together produced 5,689 tonnes of fish last year, have reeled in other chains such as Prime Supermarket and, most recently, Shop N Save and Giant, which each carry about 300kg of fresh local fish per week.
The Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority (AVA) said imported fish take three to five days to reach a customer from the time they are caught, compared with the 12 hours needed to move them from a local farm to the supermarket shelf.
Buying local is also a hedge, said Mr Chong Wee Cheong, chief executive of the Prime supermarket chain.
'Foreign supply is full of uncertainty,' he said. 'If there is a disease outbreak or problem and there is a shortage of fish, they (other countries) will cater to domestic demand first.
'It is best we support our local production, so we are less dependent.'
For land-scarce Singapore, which imports more than 90 per cent of its food, fish farming is one of the few options for local production, which then supplies both domestic and overseas markets.
AVA's plan is to boost local fish supplies from 4 per cent to 15 per cent in the next five years.
In a bid to help the industry, where fish stocks can be wiped out overnight by a bad storm or disease outbreak, the government agency also breeds fast-growing fish in laboratories and supplies fry to fish farms to increase their yield.
AVA's efforts are paying off. More farms are springing up, with 14 new ones in the last five years. There are 106 farms now, rearing varieties from the grey mullet and Malabar grouper to the spiny lobster and green mussel.
Metropolitan Fishery Group owner Malcolm Ong, who operates a 2ha farm near Lim Chu Kang, harvested 300kg of fish a day when he first started out in 2008. The 47-year-old now hauls up more than six times that amount daily.
His new target is 1,000 tonnes this year, and 3,000 tonnes in the next three to five years. 'We have also started to look for new sea space to expand our farm,' said Mr Ong, who also exports to Malaysia and hopes to double the size of his farm this year.
Kwee Siong Fish Farm owner Yeo King Kwee, who runs a 2ha fish farm off Lim Chu Kang, plans to double output by year end. He started supplying marine tilapia to supermarkets last week.
Having a local fish supply has not seen prices fall, however, as market prices prevail. But customers are snapping them up anyway. 'When I buy a fish from a Singapore farm, I know it is fresh,' said housewife Gwen Lee, 61, who buys local fish from FairPrice.
Others, like Mr Joseph Zagrodnik, 34, buy Singapore-farmed fish for another reason as well. 'They are fresher, of course,' said the teacher, who has lived in Singapore for 22 years. 'But buying locally also helps sustain our economy.'
Environmental concerns
Straits Times 30 Apr 10;
NOT everything is going swimmingly.
Aquaculture can lead to serious ecological damage if mismanaged, said Mr Howard Shaw, executive director of the Singapore Environment Council.
One of his main concerns: pollution from fish faecal matter, fish feed and chemical-laced water that seeps out from farms into surrounding waters.
Mr Shaw said this could lead to algae blooms that affect not just the livestock, but also other marine life. Fish farm pollution, he pointed out, could have been a contributing factor to the plankton bloom off Pasir Ris beach earlier this year, which wiped out more than 200,000 fish.
Apart from algae blooms, fish farming also means that fish are reared in close proximity to one another.
'They often scrape against one another, leading to infection and disease,' he said.
There are other concerns, said Ms Abigail Virjee, who manages conservation agency WWF Singapore's Sustainable Seafood Campaign.
Farmed fish, especially those that are exotic, could escape into the wild and upset the food chain by feeding on native species, competing with them for food and spreading disease.
'In addition, escaped species that are able to breed with the wild stock can lead to a dilution of the natural gene pool,' said Ms Virjee.
Acknowledging that these are real concerns, Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority (AVA) spokesman Goh Shih Yong said the situation was being closely monitored.
Farmed fish samples are sent to laboratories where they are monitored for pathogens, contaminants and residue to ensure the fish are safe for consumption, he said.
In addition, AVA regularly monitors the water in the local coastal fish-farming areas to ensure that it remains clean and suitable for aquaculture.
