SINGAPORE: Homegrown manufacturer Asiatic Agricultural Industries said its new S$10 million production facility will enable it to triple its production and expand into new markets.

The 90,000 square foot facility is located in Jurong.

Asiatic Agricultural manufactures a wide range of products for crop protection such as pesticides as well as crop cultivation such as plant supplements.

Although Singapore is not known for its agriculture sector, the firm's managing director Lawrence Chan said there were other reasons for locating the facility here.

He said: "When it comes to global business, the important thing is the financing infrastructure, product quality stability, trans-shipment ease and there are many other raw materials that are available in Singapore because there are a lot of multi-nationals based here, so we are able to get all these quality raw materials here, and there are good infrastructure to help us."

The new facility is expected to triple the firm's production capacity to about 30,000 tonnes per year.

It will also house a research and development facility which Mr Chan said will enable the firm to move into new growth areas such as green technology and sustainable agriculture.

Speaking at the opening ceremony on Wednesday morning, chairman of Spring Singapore, Philip Yeo, commended the firm on its plans to set up more business centres internationally.

He said: "IE has been very helpful to Asiatic Agricultural. They are helping them to find new markets. The key is for them to expand their capacity which they are hoping to grow by three times and to export, and Singapore is a major exporter.

"They mentioned that for output of about 25,000 tonnes, they only need about 30-plus workers, which is highly productive."

With the global agrochemical market expected to grow at 10.4 per cent in the next five years, the firm said its growth prospects are good. - 938LIVE/vm