Seafood processors seek new sites outside Malaysia

Local seafood processors may soon relocate outside Malaysia due to the difficulties in procuring seafood raw materials from domestic sources.

Seafood-processing companies exporting to the EU have problems sourcing supplies from approved aquaculture farms as only 11 out of over 1,000 farms are approved to sell to firms producing processed seafood for the EU market.

Following the lifting of the ban on Malaysian seafood products to Europe in May 2009, only nine seafood-processing facilities in the country have the approval to export to EU. They also face the problems of sourcing seafood as the resources in Malaysian waters are depleting.

Thus, some seafood companies in the country are planning to invest in seafood-processing facilities in the Asia-Pacific region instead of expanding their operations in the country.

Golden Fresh Sdn Bhd is one of the leading Malaysian seafood companies and the first in the country considering such a move. According to the company, it originally earmarked about MYR25 million to expand its existing facilities, but due to difficulties in sourcing local seafood raw materials, the company is now considering investing overseas, although the cost may come up to about MYR40 million.

To meet the needs of the company, Golden Fresh was now importing seafood raw materials from EU-approved countries such as Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, South Africa, South America and New Zealand.

Malaysian Shrimp Industry Association president Syed Omar Syed Jaafar said many of the aquaculture farms were waiting to be vetted by the Department of Fisheries and the Healthy Ministry, while the landing sites were waiting to be vetted by the Malaysian Fisheries Development Authority.

"The losses of all the shrimp farms in the country in the past two years are about MYR2 billion, since the majority of them have not been cleared to sell to the companies exporting to Europe," Syed Omar said.

He added that there are over 1,000 aquaculture farms in Malaysia breeding shrimp, of which about 70% are in the peninsula. Collectively, they produced over 82,000 tonnes of shrimp in 2009.