Palm | Kelapa Sawit

Channel NewsAsia 17 Dec 12;

SINGAPORE: National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan has made a call for Singaporeans to support local fish farms by buying locally farmed fish.

In a Facebook posting, Mr Khaw said the target is to raise the market share of locally farmed fish, or SG Fish, to 15 per cent from the current 8 per cent.

Local fish farms have come together to brand their locally farmed fish as "SG Fish", which are labelled as such in supermarkets.

Mr Khaw said Singapore imported 150,000 tonnes of fish last year.

To reduce the country's dependence on fish imports, Mr Khaw said the Agri-food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA) actively helps local fish farms raise their productivity through Research and Development (R&D).

Much of this scientific test-bedding work is done at AVA's Marine Aquaculture Centre (MAC) on St John's Island.

Mr Khaw, who visited the facility recently, wrote about the R&D efforts made by MAC.

He said one objective of MAC is to help fish reproduce and grow faster.

He said MAC scientists have identified fast growing, good quality fish of several local popular species, such as the Asian Seabass, Pompano and Tilapia.

Secondly, MAC has to get the right environmental conditions for the fishes to spawn.

Third, when the fish larvae are born, they are given an additional boost of a special diet to ensure their healthy growth.

The frys are finally transferred to commercial fish farms for scaling up as adult fish.

Mr Khaw said these R&D efforts have been valuable and have helped to boost Singapore's local fish production, from 4 per cent of total consumption in 2009 to the current 8 per cent.

- CNA/jc