Marco Polo Shipyard, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Singapore’s listed Marco Polo Marine (MPM), has won shipbuilding contracts from Singapore Aquaculture Technologies (SAT) for constructing two units of "smart" floating fish farms.
The contracts represent MPM’s first move to expand into the new market, according to a statement from MPM on 17 August.
The value of the contracts and timeframe for construction were not available. However, MPM said the contracts are expected to have some positive impact on its performance in the financial year ending on 30 September, 2021.
The "smart" fish farms that the MPM unit is building represent a "new era in aquaculture," MPM said. They would apply advanced technology and green approaches “to produce at least 500 metric tons (MT) of food fish for the Singaporean market annually.”
The farms not only help facilitate sustainable growth in the aquaculture sector but also support the government’s target to meet 30 percent of the country’s food production demand from locally-produced sources by 2030, MPM said.
Singapore has set the goal of increasing its self-sufficiency in food production from 10 percent to 30 percent by 2030 to address food security amidst climate change.
While there are plenty of industries being tweaked and targeted to reach the so-called “30-by-30” goal, much of it hinges on aquaculture becoming a bigger contributor to Singapore’s food system.
With at least 90 fish farms floating off Singapore’s coast, experts say the problem isn’t with production capacity, but public perception and being able to find a homegrown market to support the growing industry.
In June, Friend of the Sea, a Milan, Italy-based certifier of aquaculture, fishmeal, and wild-capture fisheries that recognizes sustainable fishing and aquaculture practices, signed a memorandum of understanding with the Institution of Aquaculture Singapore to collaboratively move toward the development of environmentally-responsible aquaculture processes in Singapore.
