Greek Selonda eyes SE Asian fish farming

Greek Selonda eyes SE Asian fish farming

ATHENS (Reuter): Greece's fish farming group Selonda-Riopesca has signed two deals with Singapore's Technology Development Fund to export knowhow and commence industrial fish farming activities in southeast Asia.

Selonda has agreed to assume the management of a pilot fish farming unit with an output capacity of 300 tons of tropical sea bass -- lates calcarifer. The unit is already operational.

The second deal calls for the establishment of a joint development company which will proceed with wide-scale investments in industrial fish farming in southeast Asia, NSTB and Selonda executives told reporters.

The joint venture where Selonda will have a 50 percent stake will set up a new hatchery this year and help establish new joint ventures in China, Indonesia and the Philippines, eying the development of industrial fish farming activities in the wider region, executives said.

"We identified Selonda as the best partner for these ventures. I've seen its good work and competent management during my several trips to Greece," said Dr. Thomas Ng, managing director of the Technology Development Fund and a board member at NSTB.

The Technology Development Fund is the investment arm of Singapore's National Science and Technology Board (NSTB).

"Our common aim in this collaboration is to speed up the fish farming activities in southeast Asia, applying the European aquaculture model and help establish industrial aquaculture," said John Stefanis, Selonda's managing director.

Although the region boasts some of the highest per capita fish consumption rates with aquaculture satisfying 85 percent of demand, local fish farming units lack the technology to develop industrial aquaculture.

"Tropical sea bass is only one of the many species that need to be grown," said Dr. Thomas Ng of TDF Management, noting that "in the fish and chips business" TDF had similar joint ventures with companies like Motorola, Seagate and Hewlett Packard."

The Selonda-Riopesca Group expects record fry output in 1997 after making waves with the recent acquisition of a 40 percent stake in Italy's Marina & Maricolture Alto Adriatico based in Trieste.

Management sees total output from the group's three hatcheries exceeding 56 million fry this year, setting a record.

Riopesca has also acquired a majority 80 percent stake in Triton Fisheries in western Greece. It will serve as an important hub in the Patras-Trieste route towards central European markets.