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.