Taiwanese Sea Party invests in breeding halal seafood

20-Dec-2011 - Last updated on 22-Dec-2011 at 14:12 GMT

Taiwanese marine specialist, Sea Party Technology, is adding to a MYR2bn investment ($600m), in Malaysia to breed fish and prawns for the halal community – with government backing.

William Kuo, general manager of Sea Party Technology told FoodNavigator-Asia.com that Malaysia presented compelling conditions for the cultivation of marine life.

“The temperature in Malaysia is conducive for the marine life breeding as the waters are clean and free from diseases. Secondly, Malaysia does not suffer from disasters such as earthquakes and typhoons, making it an ideal location for us,” added Kuo.

Sea Party has set up a joint venture with the Sarawak Government in its Tanjung Manis Halal Hub for the breeding of fish and prawns. The joint venture is made up of land contributed by the government with Sea Party providing food technology and R&D.

Having its plant in the Tanjung Manis Halal Hub means that Sea Party now owns a certificate to produce halal food for the over 1.8 billion muslims in the world. The global halal food market was worth about US$630m in 2010 according to World Halal Forum.

Kuo said that the joint venture would include other food processing functions such as the production of prawn snacks and frozen food in later phases.

Other markets

A spokesperson at the Tanjung Manis Halal Hub told FoodNavigator-Asia.com that the hub is attracting investors from Taiwan, Japan, China and the Middle East countries and will cater to the halal communities for food and healthcare products.

The Tanjung Manis Halal Hub in Kuching, Sarawak has more than 77,000 hectares of land to be used for agriculture and development for an assortment of halal industries, both upstream and downstream.

Aquacaulture

Kuo told the publication that Sea Party has also signed an agreement with the Agriculture Department in Sarawak earlier this month to invest in 330 acres of land.

The investment would be used to set up a park focused on aquaculture. The park will also house a training and learning centre, R&D, food production and also an exhibition area for people to visit and learn.

In addition to marine life, Kuo said Sea Party would also start its chlorella production deploying the use of bio-technology to culture algae. Taiwan is currently the largest producer of chlorella and Kuo said that he hoped to expand the production of chlorella in Malaysia.

Chlorella is rich in proteins, unsaturated fatty acids, polysaccharide carbohydrates, amino acids, nucleic acids, mineral and antioxidant vitamins.