Last week, Johnson Chang, managing director of Global Hi-Q Bio-Tech International Sdn Bhd, launched the company's U.S. $4 million tiger grouper breeding farm in Teluk Dalam, in the Malaysian state of Perak.
Chang announced that the second phase of the project has already been started, following the completion of the breeding farm. An additional 20 hectares in the Pangkor Forest Reserve has also been acquired to host future expansion of the facility, which will include a biotech development center.
Global Hi-Q's indoor farm is developed using a re-circulating system that was developed by its Taiwanese parent company, Hi-Q Bio-Tech International Ltd. The system has gone through at least 30 years of R&D before being implemented in Malaysia.
Apart from the biotech research center and breeding farm, Global Hi-Q also has collaborated with the Ministry of Entrepreneur and Cooperative Development to transfer tiger grouper fish farming research to more than 100 native entrepreneurs. The program is also supported by Majlis Amanah Rakyat, Malaysian Government-sponsored Cooperative Agency, which will provide U.S. $90,000 in loans to program participants.
The Minister of Entrepreneur and Cooperative Development, Datuk Noh Omar, who attended the launch, explained that participants will run their own fish farms with potential capacity of 20,000 metric tons per year.
Chang added that Malaysia is the perfect breeding ground for tiger grouper. The fish has mostly been popular in China, which consumed 8,000 metric tons in 2005. The increasing demand of tiger grouper in China has led the price to strengthen more than 50 percent, from U.S. $10 per kilogram in 2006 to U.S. $16 last year.
Global Hi-Q is a joint venture between a local partner and Taiwanese Hi-Q Bio-Tech Ltd., an aquaculture technology firm. The company first entered Malaysia two years ago.
