Singapore Crawfish is pivoting away from the Chinese market in favor of capitalizing on rising seafood consumption in majority-Muslim countries, according to CEO Desmond Chow.
Chow said the company is looking toward fast-growing economies and populations in the Middle East and Southeast Asia for expansion, calling demand for halal-certified seafood products there a potential “gold mine.”
“We are looking for partners in Muslim countries, including but not limited to Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, and Malaysia,” Chow told SeafoodSource. “These partners could be investors, our hatchery franchisees, grow-out farmers, or partners even purchasing technological units from us. Saudi Arabia is growing its aquaculture industry in a very big way; We [envision] a rise of Saudi customers purchasing aquaculture systems and equipment from us.”
Globally, the seafood industry has been waking up to the potential of the USD 2 trillion (EUR 1.8 trillion) global market for halal products, estimated to be worth USD 3 trillion (EUR 2.7 trillion) by 2026. The Thai seafood industry has, for instance, prioritized halal certification for its products.
The world’s Muslim population will increase by about 35 percent in the next 20 years, rising from 1.6 billion in 2010 to 2.2 billion by 2030, resulting in Muslims comprising 26.4 percent of the world's total projected population of 8.3 billion people in 2030, according to new population projections by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion and Public Life.
Two years ago, Singapore Crawfish filed patents for an automated system to effectively separate crayfish adults from their craylings, or eggs, and it has developed its own research and development for chitin and chitosan. That technology is now being marketed globally, according to Chow. Singapore Crawfish is also eager to continue distributing fries from company hatcheries located in Malaysia and Singapore to contracted farmers who sell finished crayfish back to the company after a typical growing time of four months. The ability of crayfish to grow in low-quality water and its low maintenance feeding requirements make it an ideal species for developing countries, said Chow. Singapore Crawfish currently supplies fry to growers in Indonesia, but originally focused most of his efforts on rising demand in China. However, the world’s largest consumption market for crayfish is showing signs of overproduction, Chow said.
“China is still on our radar, but it's already a matured and concentrated market,” Chow said. “By comparison, Muslim countries are [part] of a new, untapped market with less competition; we see more potential for growth. Right now, there are not many competitors. That is why we think it’s an untapped market and plan to enter it as soon as possible [to] snatch a big piece of the pie.”
Vendors at the Huangsha fish market in Guangzhou are selling crayfish below last year’s prices due to a supply glut, the Southern Bay Finance news site recently reported.
“Our hometown is full of crayfish farmers, and output is high,” Hubei province crayfish farmer Zhuang Zhang said.
China produced 2.6 million metric tons (MT) of crayfish in 2021, compared to 1.8 million MT in 2019, according to the China Crayfish Industry Development Report (2022), jointly compiled by the National Aquaculture Technology Promotion Center and China Aquatic Products Processing and Promotion Association (CAPPMA). China accounts for 70 percent of global production, with Hubei province accounting for 41 percent of overall Chinese production.
Shifts in Chinese agricultural and aquaculture production frequently produce radical price swings for commodities as producers pile into production of in-demand foodstuffs. Chow told SeafoodSource in 2021 he saw “crazy” import demand in China in part due to the seasonality of output. But greater geographical diversity in crayfish production has mostly allayed those issues. Although Singapore Crawfish remains a top producer in Asia, there is growing competition in the space. Major seafood players, including Guolian Aquatic, have begun crayfish production in recent years, and Tianhe Aquatic has begun exporting crayfish products to Western markets.
Chow said the fluctuating market has led him to want to diversify.
“If we simply look at shrimp production, it has shifted originally from China to Indonesia and now even slowly to Vietnam,” Chow said. “We are not pivoting away from China or Southeast Asia; In fact, we are employing a multi-prong strategy to target more countries simultaneously.”
In tandem with expanding its market portfolio, Singapore Crawfish is also growing its own operations by building a 5,000-square-meter, high-tech grow-out facility in Bangkok, Thailand, that features the container recirculating aquaculture system (CRAS) produced by Chow’s other company, Hatch Hives.
Photo courtesy of Singapore Crawfish
