FROM FARM
One of the farms supplying the live shrimps is Nippon Koi Farm in Sungei Tengah, which has been breeding fish since the 1970s.
Owner Pay Bok Sing said he was initially not keen on shrimp farming as he struggled with procuring healthy shrimp larvae. A single disease-stricken shrimp could infect a whole pond within a day.
SAFEF then established a surveillance process to test shrimp larvae for disease the moment they reach Singapore. It takes just an hour to get results, before they reach local aquaculture farms.
The federation is casting its net wider for larvae imports – previously only from Malaysia – to include China and Vietnam.
It also helps farmers source better feed to grow higher-quality produce, and its consultants provide farms with advice on improving their setup and processes.
Mr Pay told CNA that he initially did not really want to conduct prawn farming on a large scale. However, SAFEF later helped establish connections for the procurement of baby shrimp and feed, and advised on how to control disease.
“They’ve given us a lot of support. Then my mind started to change to want to convert the farm to a shrimp farm,” he said.
Decades of fish farming have helped Mr Pay’s family business innovate its own aquaculture systems to optimise space and save costs.
He designed what he calls “shrimp condominiums” for his crustaceans – involving perforated plastic crates stacked on top of each other, creating multiple layers that his shrimp can swim in and out of.
