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Malcolm Ong devised an innovative system to help him solve issues plaguing his fish farms, says NG ZHUO YANGTHE Metropolitan Fishery Group (MFG) runs four offshore fish farms along the Straits of Johor.迷你倉 With an annual production capacity of 600 tonnes of fish - working out roughly to 1.2 million fish, each 500g in weight on average - MFG claims to be Singapore's largest production farm.But the going is getting tougher, said its chief executive Malcolm Ong.Besides the usual problems of disease and survivability, there is also the issue of a drop in dissolved oxygen in the seawater, where MFG has its net cages of fish.He is unable to attribute the problem of lower oxygen levels in the water to the rapid development of Malaysia's economic region of Iskandar, or even to broader natural phenomena like climate change, but he is sure of one thing - dips in the level of dissolved oxygen in the waters have become more prevalent since 2007, when MFG started up.Low oxygen levels threaten the lives of fish fry.The company has met this challenge head-on by marrying traditional fish-farming with expertise in IT.That was how state-of-the-art solar panels came to be installed on its farms in 2011. They power a system that monitors the seawater for levels of dissolved oxygen, its pH and its temperature.Mr Ong, the brain behind the system, had spent more than two decades in information technology before he quit to pursue his passion for fish-farming. He believes technology can help fish farmers to overcome an environment which has become increasingly challenging to the business.Sensors in the monitoring system which track the quality of water transmit the data to a cloud-like server, which Mr Ong can access in real time, without even physically being at the fish farm.The former managing director of a software company has also programmed a mobile application that is compatible with the system; using this, MFG's on-site fish farmers can also access the data in real time on their smartphones.The system can even send text messages to alert members of the MFG staff whenever there is a drop in dissolved oxygen. These alerts are timed at varying frequencies, depending on the severity of the situatio文件倉.If dissolved oxygen falls in the wee hours of the morning, the system can activate solar power-driven pumps and aerators to pump oxygen into the seawater automatically, thus relieving the stress on the fish and lowering their death rate.Mr Ong said MFG is working on using technology on other upcoming projects as well. One is a system to track the amount of feed given to the fish to minimise wastage; the other tracks the number of fish in each net cage.If successful, these innovations will be deployed on MFG's new 1 ha farm off the coast of Changi. Now being built, it will enable the company to double its production volume in the next three years when it is up and running.MFG also plans to raise the production capacity of its existing farms; the four farms in the Straits of Johor, which now take up 3 ha of sea space, aim to raise their output by a third to 800 tonnes a year by the end of next year.Besides expanding its farms, MFG is looking to widen the range of fish species it offers to the local market. Supermarkets that buy their stocks from MFG have indicated their demand for a greater variety, said Mr Ong.Three types of local fish are now farmed - the grey mullet, the milkfish and the seawater tilapia. With the opening of its Changi facility, MFG is working towards offering the rabbitfish, red snapper and silver snapper, in time for next year's Chinese New Year.MFG has grown its revenue and production by 20 per cent year on year in the last three years.Mr Ong, estimating that Singapore imports more than 90 per cent of its fish, sees "a good opportunity to service the local market".He is confident that MFG can corner a larger market share by ensuring that its fish meet Singaporeans' demand for safe, affordable and good-quality fish.Add "fresh" to that, for, with a turnaround time of only 12 hours from sea to shelf, MFG's supplies are probably fresher than imported fish.Within the next three to five years, MFG plans to enter the business of filleting and packaging fish for sale to overseas markets.Mr Ong said: "Our ambition is to be a global player, not just a local player. But we'll always give top priority to Singapore because it is where we have a strong customer base."存倉