Fish farming goes high-tech

Former IT man uses technology to bring industry into 21st century
Natalie Kuan and Chan Huan Jun Straits Times 20 Jul 13;

IT LOOKS like a traditional fish farm floating on the sea, at first. Draw closer to Metropolitan Fishery Group, however, and more begins to meet the eye.

Solar panels are mounted on the roof of a small wooden shelter. And a peek at the owner’s iPhone reveals a water monitoring system which can be accessed remotely.

These are just two of several high-tech features which make the fish farm stand out in an industry that has long depended on low-cost labour instead of technology.

Metropolitan Fishery Group is the brainchild of 50-year-old Malcolm Ong.

In 2007, he took a leap of faith. From being a managing director of a French software company, he plunged into fish farming, despite having no experience.

“It was all because I wanted to buy a boat,” he said. “As I did my research, I got to know more and more fishermen who lamented the dwindling local fish stocks in Singapore. That was when I realised fish farming was feasible and I could make a difference.”

Locally harvested fish currently meets 7 per cent of demand here.

The Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority hopes to increase this to 15 per cent by 2015.

Metropolitan Fishery Group is now the biggest fish farm in this country, capable of producing up to 600 tonnes of fish a year, and selling them under its brand The Fish Farmer.

It helps that new-age fish farms can tailor supply to demand with pinpoint accuracy.

Fish can be bred to the exact size and weight needed by the market.

In contrast, traditional fishingdepends entirely on what gets into the net.

As a veteran of the IT industry, it would seem natural that Mr Ong’s fish farm incorporates high-tech equipment, including the water-monitoring system.

When the oxygen level in the water is low, an alert is sent. Staff can then activate an oxygen pump, giving the fish a better chance of surviving. Low oxygen levels are a common problem for fish farms.

Still, he says, the most important thing he brought from the office to the farm was his people- management skills.

“It’s all about bringing a team of people together. Like in IT, when we worked on projects, in the same way here you need to coordinate people.”

As much as technology has changed the game in the industry, some things remain the same.

Says Mr Ong: “Back-breaking labour. It’s all muscle and human strength. “I need three or four people to reel in a net when it’s filled with fish. Each fish weighs half a kilogram.

“Automation has yet to make an appearance here.”

It was sink or swim for ex-pig farmer
He had to adapt to rearing fish after pig farms were phased out
Debbie Lee Straits Times 20 Jul 13;

MR ONG Kim Pit's decision to become a fish farmer in 1990 was made out of necessity, rather than choice.

Back then, the farmer, now 65, had been rearing pigs in Punggol for about 30 years. But the Government's decision to phase out pig farms in the early 1980s saw him turn to fish.

Armed with only the know-how of pig farming, he started out rearing freshwater fish such as marble goby and barramundi in a Lim Chu Kang pond.

But after three years, when the rent proved too expensive, he bought a fish pen off the Lim Chu Kang coast to farm saltwater fish, starting with twenty small nets and 3,000 barramundi.

The transition from pigs to fish was not a smooth one. "If a pig falls sick, you inject it with medicine. But fish are trickier," he said. "Species such as grouper will definitely come down with an illness at some point. Their throats and mouths may rot."

And there was competition from other fish farms. The Jurong Fishery Port has since stepped in to regulate prices. "In the past, I would sell a kilogram of fish for $5, and they would sell it for $4.50," said Mr Ong.

But he has no regrets making the switch, even if he lost as much as 3,000kg of fish in the beginning. "As farmers, we need to have confidence in ourselves," he said, adding that he would constantly analyse where he had gone wrong to find ways to improve.

After losing $70,000 in barramundi because of diseases, for example, he turned to milkfish and mullet. It paid off, with these two species less prone to illness. Their feed, of stale bread and uncooked instant noodles, is also cheaper.

Now a seasoned fish farmer, he even uses high-tech machinery, such as a pump to improve oxygen levels in the water.

His farm rears at least 400,000 fish today, most of them bound for wet markets and supermarkets here. He earns $2,000 to $3,000 a month, depending on orders from Jurong Fishery Port.

But Mr Ong intends to call it a day after two more years. His three sons are not keen to take over the business.

"It's not an easy job to follow," said his second son Jun Yuan, 30. "The operation and maintenance costs will be too high for me to carry on for another decade."