Report from a Barramundi Fish Farm Visit in Singapore

Just a few weeks ago I was in Singapore for two days as part of one of my usual business trips to South East Asia.

Initial trials proved that farmed fish species like Barramundi (I reviewed it a few posts back, read it here) still relatively unknown in most of Europe especially Southern Europe, could have a good response with our clients. Therefore a visit to a Singapore based fish farm who could potentially become our supplier was a must-see during my last trip to Asia.

We reached the tanks after a short jet boat ride. I was quite surprised to see that the busy life of a commercial port like Singapore was unfolding just a few meters away from the fish farm and yet the water looked quite pristine. Also captured in the images, the tedious job of the farm workers giving antibiotics injections to every single baby fish. Fish farming is usually conducted in a high-density environment, therefore antibiotics are needed to prevent the spread of infections and disease.

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Clean Seas Bluefin Tuna Aquaculture is Proving Successful

Clean Seas, the world renown aquaculture giant, is pioneering the captivity breeding of Bluefin Tuna. The company is confident that the trial will eventually produce considerable commercial quantities of the sought after and highly threatened fish. As reported by ausfoodnews.com, some of the young tuna have now lived for more than 150 days, and survived transfer to sea cages at the company’s Arno Bay facility in South Australia. These results are unexpectedly positive and will set a benchmark as a world’s first in aqua-farming.

China’s Aquaculture Supremacy

Just recently the WorldFish Center and Conservation International released a report called ‘Blue Frontiers: Managing the Environmental Costs of Aquaculture‘ which presents a detailed analysis of today’s global aquaculture. As the Atlantic reports the scariest chart presented in this review is the one that shows China’s contribution to global aquaculture in comparison with other continents (not even countries). The visual is striking. The country alone accounted for 61.5 percent of global aquaculture in 2008, a fact that has profound implications for the rest of the world in terms of food safety. When we deal with fish from China, we can’t be sure the fish is free of a host of risky antibiotics and other chemicals. Acknowledging that the country with the worst record on aquaculture pollution is dominating the industry creates a number of concerns, but nevertheless the report suggests that fish farming may be our only solution to the diminishing stock supplies in our oceans, provided it’s done right through more stringent controls. Easier said than done especially for those countries that traditionally are under-regulated when it comes to food standards.

Tilapia Found to Perform Poorly Nutritionally and Environmentally

As it turns out, after more reading on the topic, Tilapia often called the perfect factory fish is not so perfect when it comes to other factors like nutritional values and the environment. I covered this topic in a previous post because the numbers are truly staggering. As the New York Times recently reported, Americans ate 475 million pounds of Tilapia last year, four times the amount a decade ago, making this once obscure African native the most popular farmed fish in the United States. Aquaculture’s rising star lives well in high-density cages, breeds and grows fast and, from a marketing point of view, it’s quite bland in taste making it the perfect fish for the many who don’t particularly like a fishy flavour. Isn’t it all too good to be true? Maybe it is for those who farm it and see their volumes and profits rise year after year. But for the end consumer it may come as a revelation to know that, as reported by the New York Times, compared with other fish, farmed tilapia contains relatively small amounts of beneficial omega-3 fatty acids, the fish oils that are the main reasons doctors recommend eating fish frequently; salmon has more than 10 times the amount of tilapia. Also, farmed tilapia contains a less healthful mix of fatty acids because the fish are fed corn and soy instead of lake plants and algae, the diet of wild tilapia. Moreover it appears that most of the Tilapia imported in the US comes from either Asia or Latin America, where some argue farming is still widely unregulated and intensive, making it an unfriendly practice to the environment and the animals. Whilst it seems that the US has no problems with these matters, at least so far, taking about Tilapia to my clients in Europe, I see skepticism as you would expect from a more conservative community like the EU when it comes to sanitary concerns, deregulated farms, etc… I believe that there will be a place for Tilapia on our plates in the future, mostly because given the declining fish stocks and rising population we don’t have much of a choice, but a more regulated and transparent acquafarming industry is required for sustainable growth.

image courtesy of NY Times

new kid on the block… the barra!

It tastes much better than it looks, I can tell you that!

A sampling of the mighty Barramundi, also known as Asian Seabass, just arraived from Singapore. Widely distributed in South-East Asia and Australia, this white flaky flesh fish is of large commercial importance in many areas, whilst it’s still relatively unknown in Italy and other European countries. A few facts:

The Barramundi is fished internationally and raised in aquaculture in Australia, Malaysia, India, Indonesia, Israel, Thailand and the United States. The Australian barramundi industry is relatively established with an annual production of more than 4000 tons. In the broader Southeast Asian region production is estimated to exceed 30,000 tons. By contrast, the US industry produces about 800 tons a year from a single facility. Barramundi under culture will commonly grow from an ex-hatchery juvenile, between 50 and 100 mm in length to a table size of 400-600g within 12 months and to 3.0 kg within 18–24 months.

I have good expectations for the performance of the barra in Italy too… I’ll keep you posted on the developments. Please comment if you have any feedback!

is tilapia aquafarming’s cash cow?

If you don’t even know what tilapia is, don’t worry you’re amongst many. This fresh water fish originally from Africa, now widespread in Asia, is also called the chicken of the sea, as it can be bred in a high density environment with low feeding costs. These two factors alone are enough to make any aquafarming venture a winner. Moreover if the fish you are farming is easy to market, considerably inexpensive and versatile for cooking, you have a bingo. CNN’s Earth Frontiers program lately aired a documentary covering the wonders of this still relatively unknown fish, supporting aquafarming as a sustainable industry as opposed to wild fishing to feed the ever-growing population. I personally don’t think we have a choice because the supplies in the wild are diminishing, so it is wise to bet on those species (like this one) that allow us to farm the fish in a cost-effective way. Having said this, watching the video, I found myself wondering if animal rights groups would be at ease seeing how crowded the farming tanks are. If there’s any of you out there reading, I’d love to hear your comments!

see the CNN Earth’s Frontier documentary here