Fresh fish in your area: Container fish farm launched next to Tampines Round Market & Food Centre

SINGAPORE: Residents in Tampines may soon get to buy and eat fish farmed in their backyard. 

With the launch of a container fish farm next to Tampines Round Market & Food Centre on Sunday (Nov 19) – the first to be set up in an HDB town – those who get their produce there can look forward to buying jade perch at the market. 

The 20-foot container houses a recirculating aquaculture system, developed by local start-up Aqualita Ecotechnology based on more than 15 years of research by Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory. 

This system provides a cleaner and more controlled environment, and allows for the upcycling of fish waste, eliminates the need for antibiotics and reduces pollution caused by uneaten feed, the team said in a press release. 

The fish and the system can also be monitored remotely, which means fewer on-site staff members are needed. The setup is suitable for farming jade perch and murray cod, as well as familiar local fish like barramundi, red snapper, hybridised grouper and tilapia. 

“We can easily farm fish anywhere within an urban city, and we can easily relocate, when the site is up, to a new place and restart a new farm very quickly,” said Mr Goh Chin Heng, director of Aqualita Ecotechnology. 

According to the company, one container, which takes up about 15 sqm, can produce up to 1,200kg of jade perch a year. Installing one container starts at S$30,000 (US$22,200) for the basic model, excluding land preparation costs. 

Each container houses three tanks, which can be used for different varieties of fish, or fish at different stages of growth. When journalists visited the container on Nov 7, one of the tanks was already filled with jade perch.

Water filters are neatly tucked into the side of the container, and there is barely any room to walk around inside. The container will be closed to the public, with glass windows on the side for curious residents to peek inside. 

The container in Tampines will be used to farm jade perch. Aqualita can also farm barramundi, tilapia, red snapper, hybridised grouper and murray cod at their seven-container set-up at Sungei Tengah, the team said. 

“By using up spaces that are not utilised, we can actually grow fishes in an urban city – within grass plots, within empty warehouses,” said Mr Goh. 

The system is patented by Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory, he added. Unlike floating sea cages, the climate inside the containers can be controlled.

“And we’re able to grow fish in conditions that are away from potential algae bloom, potential changes in water quality, and we’re able to be more certain of how much fish we can get out of the whole system.” 

The team is also exploring the possibility of adding solar panels to the container, which will offset about 50 per cent of the energy used by the system, said Mr Goh. 

With the container located next to the market, this means that fish will be farmed on-site in Tampines, reducing delivery time and transport costs, said the team in the press release. 

The association representing the market and food centre is also collaborating with local fishmongers to sell the jade perch, it read.

Aqualita plans for the first harvest to be ready in four to six months, and will sell the jade perch at cost to fishmongers. 

This comes on the back of the revelation that Apollo Aquaculture Group has been under judicial management from May 2022. Its Temasek-backed subsidiary Apollo Aquarium was reported in 2021 to be building a S$65 million (US$48 million) eight-storey fish farming facility. 

The facility was to have started operations in the first quarter of 2021, and achieve a total annual output capacity of 2,700 tonnes of fish each year by 2023.

The group’s judicial managers told The Business Times in February that they were in talks with investors to rehabilitate the group.

Late last year, Apollo Aquarium sold out its remaining fish stock, but temporarily stopped bringing in new batches of fingerlings to grow, one of the judicial managers said.

Singapore currently imports more than 90 per cent of its food. The country announced its "30 by 30" goal in 2019, aiming to produce 30 per cent of its nutritional needs locally by 2030. 

In 2022, local farms contributed around 29 per cent, 8 per cent, and 4 per cent of the total food consumption for hen shell eggs, seafood and vegetables respectively, said the Singapore Food Agency. 

Working towards the 30 by 30 goal, the government also announced the Lim Chu Kang Masterplan in 2020 to turn the area into a high-tech, highly productive and resource-efficient agri-food cluster.