Ornamental fish farms in Singapore may get tenancy reprieve

Exporters fear lack of time to set up at new sites when leases end
Jessica Lim, Straits Times 10 May 10;

FISH exporters in Jalan Kayu worried about their leases expiring at the year end may well get a reprieve.

The Singapore Land Authority (SLA) told The Straits Times that it is working closely with relevant agencies to extend the tenancies. The 17 affected exporters account for about 80 per cent of Singapore's ornamental fish export industry, which, as a world leader, is worth around $100 million a year.

The land these exporters now occupy is being taken back by the Government for redevelopment. The exporters are worried they may have to wind up their businesses if they cannot be relocated elsewhere by Dec 31, when their leases expire. The SLA has released four plots of land for tender as alternative sites for the fish farms, but the land area is not enough to take in all the affected farms.

Already, 14 of the 17 Jalan Kayu farms have submitted 19 bids for these four plots, with some farms submitting more than one bid; the remaining three affected farms are thinking of shutting down.

The SLA has designated another 10 sites in Yishun for the fish exporters, but these will go up for tender only at the end of the month.

Those in the business are worried on two counts: One is that the entry of new bidders will narrow their chances of securing a site. The other worry - a bigger one - is the lack of time in which to get their new farms up and running by the year end.

For now, it is still not known when the tenders will be awarded. The new plots are little more than empty tracts of land now and it will take at least a year to put in the necessary infrastructure such as fish tanks and warehouses, said Mr Fong Ching Loon, 72, who owns Pisces Tropica in Seletar West Farmway 1.

He welcomes the assurance from the SLA, which has said: 'To ensure a smooth transition between Jalan Kayu and the new site, SLA will work closely with the relevant agencies to extend the tenancies in Jalan Kayu.'

Mr Fong, who also chairs the Singapore Aquarium Fish Exporters' Association, said the association's 44 members hope something can be done - and soon.

'If not, we will be forced to stop business for a while, and we will lose customers,' said the exporter, who is nonetheless hedging his chances by submitting bids for two of the four new plots.

The uncertainty has irked some exporters, who have made Singapore the ornamental fish capital of the world.

Ms Pauline Teo, 46, the third-generation owner of the oldest fish-exporting company here, Teo Way Yong & Sons, said her company has moved four times since the 1920s: 'Each time we move, it costs money. We're always worried we'll be told to move.'

She and Mr Fong noted that the business is given more support overseas.

Mr Fong said he learnt from an ornamental fish convention in China that a tech park there has been kitted up with a communal filter system that cleans water and pipes oxygen to the tanks.

The Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA), which regulates fish exporters here, said it will continue working with them to see what more can be done for the industry.

Dr Ling Kai Huat, its senior ornamental fish specialist, said the tech park Mr Fong mentioned was a commercially driven venture, and that if the exporters here are keen on the system, they can band together to propose and develop it.

'AVA will certainly do its best to support and facilitate such a venture if it is demanded by the local industry.'

Multimillion-dollar industry faces stiff competition today
Straits Times 10 May 10;

FOR Mr Teo Way Yong, catching longkang fish grew from a childhood hobby into a multimillion-dollar business.

Back in the 1920s, armed with a crude net made out of an old T-shirt and wire, he tried his luck in the longkang, or drain, in his kampung, which used to be where today's Central Business District sits.

Netting a couple of guppies or molly fish made for a good day.

When he was in his 20s, he had a stint selling fighting cocks, after which he opened a shop to sell 'drain fish' in Lau Pa Sat, the first wet market here.

His customers were mostly British expatriates.

His granddaughter Pauline Teo, who today runs ornamental fish exporter Teo Way Yong & Sons, said: 'Everyone else was selling live chickens and meat, but he sold ornamental fish. He was definitely a pioneer in his trade.'

His big break came in the 1960s, when a client in Hamburg, Germany, heard of his shop and placed an order for these tropical fishes.

With his son's help, Mr Teo packed scores of them into biscuit tins and put them on a ship docked at Clifford Pier.

The journey took six months, during which the fish were fed and had the water in their tins changed daily - all by hand.

Oxygen pumps were unheard of then, as was shipping fish by airplane, said Ms Teo.

Her grandfather's company went from strength to strength from then, peaking in performance between 1975 and 1990, when its turnover hit $4.5 million a year.

It was on the patriarch's watch over 30 years ago that Singapore became known as the ornamental fish capital of the world.

Today, Teo Way Yong & Sons is one of more than 100 fish exporters here in a market mostly made up of smaller players.

Singapore's share in the global export market went up from 16 per cent in 2003 to 21 per cent in 2007. Figures from the latest United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation report put the earnings for those two years respectively at US$41.4 million (S$58 million) and US$66.1 million.

In 2007, Singapore beat Spain, with 10 per cent of the global export market, into second place; Malaysia was third with 8 per cent.

But the industry strongly depends on the general well-being of the world economy, noted Dr Ling Kai Huat, senior ornamental fish specialist in the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA).

When the economic downturn arrived, the industry took a hit. The value of ornamental fish exports in 2008 stood at $97.23 million; last year, it dipped to $87.1 million, he noted.

Sales figures from January to March this year were at $22.3 million.

Singapore now exports ornamental fish to more than 80 countries and territories, with the United States and Britain being the biggest customers.

Business really took off in the early 1980s with the opening of Changi Airport, said the chairman of Singapore Aquarium Fish Exporters' Association, Mr Fong Ching Loon.

'There were all these new routes to everywhere in the world, from everywhere in the world. Trade was booming, and we were there to enjoy it,' said the founder of fish export company Pisces Tropica, established in 1966.

His company started off as a supplier, selling guppies to Teo Way Yong & Sons. In 1968, he started importing goldfish from Hong Kong.

His break came from a British customer who wanted two goldfish sent to his house in England.

'We packed them and sent them over,' said the 72-year-old, whose daughter will take over the business.

Orders just poured in after that.

The weather here is perfect for rearing tropical fish. The 70 ornamental fish farms account for about half of the exports from here; the rest of the stock - ranging from aquatic frogs and eels to koi and goldfish - comes from countries like Vietnam and Indonesia and is then re-exported.

All ornamental fish imported into Singapore are moved to exporting companies and quarantined for a week before they are packed for export. During that time, the fish are monitored for diseases and are put in water with pH levels similar to that in their destination countries.

Fish bred in farms here are also channelled through exporting companies which pack them into plastic bags for export.

But the industry is not faring as well nowadays.

Economic downturn aside, profit margins have been narrowed with competition coming from countries such as Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, where land is cheaper and the cost of fish farming, lower.

Even Poland and the Czech Republic are catching on to the game. The companies there rear their own fry and truck them all over Europe.

Ms Teo said the 100 per cent profit which Teo Way Yong & Sons used to make in the 1980s has been whittled down to about 10 per cent.

Another reason is a fall in demand for the fish, said Mr Fong. Rearing them has less of a hold nowadays when put against modern-day pastimes such as the Internet, television and other high tech gadgets.

The AVA's Dr Ling said: 'The overall competing demand for land use for other purposes as well as business succession are some of the issues faced by the industry.'

He added that the AVA will continue to support the industry through technology development and by facilitating trade.

'We will strive to keep Singapore in No. 1 in this business,' he said.

JESSICA LIM