Fish farming infrastructure in southern waters to be improved

SFA exploring shared facilities for new farms, as current operator plans exit

- Cheryl Tan

The Singapore Food Agency (SFA) is looking to improve fish farming infrastructure in the southern waters, saying the only farm operating there, the Barramundi Group, has plans to exit.

Before new fish farms take over the sites on Pulau Senang and Pulau Semakau, SFA is exploring the feasibility of having new farms share facilities there, the agency told The Straits Times.

Barramundi Group, which farms Asian sea bass, had open-water sea cages off Pulau Senang and Pulau Semakau, as well as a landbased hatchery and nursery on Semakau.

Its head of strategy and operations Tan Ying Quan said that farming in the southern waters comes with higher-than-usual operating costs due to inadequate infrastructure, making it challenging to be cost-competitive and to achieve long-term profitability.

That was an important reason why the company stopped farming here, and decided to focus its operations in Brunei instead, he said.

Said Mr Tan: "For one thing, transporting goods, such as fish feed and equipment, can be challenging with no dedicated jetty for fish farmers to use. We must get a private-hire crane whenever we need to move large items from mainland Singapore to the islands and back. We also pay hefty yacht club berthing fees to have parking space for our staff transport boats."

In addition, the hatchery and nursery on Semakau - which can produce two million fingerlings, or juvenile fish, annually does not have access to grid-supplied electricity or fresh water.

So it has to transport diesel and fresh water weekly to sustain operations, contributing to significantly higher operating costs since it took over the site in 2012.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, the group stopped operating the Semakau facility in 2021 to cut costs.