Speech by SMS Dr Koh Poh Koon at NYP's School of Chemical & Life Sciences Applied Science Conference

Nov 21, 2017

Thank you for inviting me to this inaugural Nanyang Polytechnic School of Chemical & Life Sciences Applied Science Conference. I am especially happy to be here, to see our tertiary institutions taking the lead to organise events where academia and industry can come together to exchange ideas, to build a network of relationships and to forge partnerships. This conference will take a closer look at our local aquaculture industry, and how we can all work together to support and develop it holistically. 

Our national food security strategy is largely in this present day, based on source diversification. In fact, 90% - 95% of what we consume in Singapore are imported from overseas sources. With changing global trends, our local aquaculture industry is poised to play a more crucial role in Singapore’s food security.

Let me share with you a few trends. Globally, we are seeing the effects of global warming and climate change – and this is expected to impact global food production. For example, in 2016, rising ocean temperatures as a result of global warming caused algal bloom which wiped out 20 per cent of Chile’s salmon industry. In this regard, declining food production due to climate change coupled with increasing population growth will put greater pressure on traditional food sources. 

That is why we need to build up some degree of local production to buffer against intermittent and sometimes very sudden supply shocks, and not rely solely on foreign source diversification as a means of ensuring our food security. We must therefore encourage our local aquaculture players to develop into a strong supporting pillar for our local food supply resilience. The industry currently provides about 10 percent of our local fish consumption, but there is potential for them to do much more. But beyond just leveraging on technology to increase production, we also need to look at how to do it productively and sustainably – to ensure that the industry is viable in the longer term.  

With technology maturing and becoming more accessible and affordable compared to a couple of decades ago, there are opportunities for our local aquaculture sector to scale-up and be more resilient. We will therefore need to ensure that our local food fish stock takes on a lot more protection, for disease prevention even as we scale-up our local aquaculture production. 

In doing so, we will need to address a growing concern, antimicrobial resistance. Antimicrobial resistance is a result of the over-use of antibiotics leading to superbugs that are no longer responsive to currently available drugs. It is not just about antimicrobial resistance in the animals and fish, but because at the end of the day, the fish will be consumed by us. Residual antibiotics in the food chain, entering into the human food chain, will become a threat to antimicrobial resistance. That has a lot of downstream implications for us. Faced with the real threat of a post-antibiotic era, concerted efforts are needed to reduce the overuse of antibiotics. This includes reducing the use of antibiotics on fish stocks, especially when they are used for disease prevention and sometimes for growth promotion.   

This leads in to the need for sustainable management of diseases, which is even more crucial as we intensify production. A higher density of fish in a given area means higher susceptibility to not just bacterial infections but also parasitic ones. This also presents opportunities for our industry and academia to work together, to do more R&D and come up with innovative, new solutions. For instance, I understand that Nanyang Polytechnic has collaborated with Barramundi Asia to develop a prototype autogenous vaccine. The locally developed autogenous vaccine can help fight microbial infections affecting food fish. This project has led to the incorporation of Singapore’s first autogenous fish vaccine production company, UVaxx Pte Ltd – which develops and manufactures vaccines independently for commercial use. The company is planning to work with several fish farms to develop customised fish vaccines specific to the disease situation of individual farms. 

As we focus on building technologies upstream at our farms, we should also look into technologies to improve processes downstream, closer to our food chain, especially at food establishments such as restaurants. I was told that Nanyang Polytechnic had worked with JUMBO Group to develop technology to more accurately determine the “meatiness” of crustaceans. This approach is valuable to the seafood industry in the areas of crab grading and to identify lean crabs that require “fattening” before they can be served. The meat content in the iconic chilli and pepper crabs sold at seafood restaurants can now be determined using scientific methods. It is no longer based on weight alone and the good reputation of the restaurant, but it is possible to have a scientific means of determination. A grading scale has been developed and the reliability has been confirmed by chefs from JUMBO.

Conclusion 

We have with us at this conference, expert speakers who will be covering various aquaculture topics from different perspectives. You will get to hear from the Government, academics, researchers, our industry players and farmers. They will share with you the challenges but also the opportunities that they see coming from such collaboration.  I urge all of you to work together to explore new ideas and take the aquaculture sector in Singapore to greater heights. But importantly, to make our food safer, fresher, tastier, with a lot more science, knowledge and resilience in supply. 

Thank you and I wish all a good conference ahead.