June 9, 2005 

 

Singapore's egg professional

 

An eFeedLink exclusive report

 

 

While agro-technology has limited applications in land-scarce, non-agrarian Singapore, the country's no. 1 egg farm is a showcase of how high-tech farming methods can be used to great advantage.

 

Located in Singapore's north-western "agricultural heartland", Seng Choon has become a brand name synonymous with eggs in general, and high quality, low-cholesterol ones in particular. The country's leading egg producer, Seng Choon Farm is Singapore's, and also Southeast Asia's first high-tech egg farm.

 

Since operations began in 1987, Seng Choon Farm has grown from an original two layer-house set-up to 16 houses for layers and nine for growers. An initial investment outlay of S$8 million (US$4.81 million) has expanded to an annual turnover which now exceeds S$15 million. All farm operations, from in-house feed milling and mixing to egg collection and distribution have been thoroughly mechanized since day one.

 

Currently, Seng Choon has a domestic market share of 10 percent, supplying some 300,000 eggs daily direct to its distribution network of supermarket, catering and confectionary businesses, food industries and service industries. Some 20 delivery trucks ferry the eggs direct to the end-users or customers within four hours of laying.

 

To date, the farm, which first began as a feed mill operation and pig farm, has a raising capacity of 500,000 fowl, including day-old chicks (DOC) and grown layers. Poultry feed are mixed at the on-site 100 tonne/day-capacity feed mill plant, according to nutrition specifications for varying layer age-groups. Feed are brought in and transported around the farm via trucks of a 70-tonne daily capacity.

 

The chickens are house in six-storey cages in a completely sealed, fully closed farming system. Indoor temperatures are regulated at 27-28 deg C, the optimum climate for layers, said Koh Swee Lai, the farm's 61-year-old founder and chairman. Lighting in the poultry houses is regulated, while ultra-violet filters for drinking water help control and maintain sanitary standards.

 

The farm operates under an all-in-all-out system, which utilizes farm space on the 10.4 hectare area and minimises disease infections among birds. Of the more than 100 workers the farm employs, only about 10 trained staff work in direct contact with the birds, checking for signs of diseases and monitoring potential laying problems every day. Growers are vaccinated for general avian diseases like Newcastle and coccidiosis by trained veterinarians.

 

Where Seng Choon used to obtain its DOC from neighbouring countries like Indonesia and Thailand, last year's regional bird flu outbreak forced the farm to seek supplies outside Asia. Layer chicks, of the Lohmann brown breed, are now sourced from approved breeder farms in Holland and sent to Singapore within 24 hours of hatching. A strong euro, higher energy prices and shipping costs, and the considerable distance for transport has bumped up costs enormously, said Koh, citing current prices of about S$2 for a DOC from Holland, compared with less than S$0.6-1.0 for Thai or Indonesian imports.

 

Higher feed prices particularly for corn, and mandatory and costly laboratory health checks on poultry stock since last year have also added to incremental costs. On the other hand, the regional bird flu outbreak also signalled the importance of having a domestic supply of eggs and the dangers of import over-reliance. Egg prices in Singapore rose from 15 cents to 22 cents an egg for a month in 2004 when bans were placed on supplies from neighbouring Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia, following bird flu.

 

"The bird flu was bad, not doubt; however, it was through this that the AVA (Singapore's Agri-food and Veterinary Authority) realised how important it was to have a domestic egg supply, no matter how limited," remarked Koh. "Sure, compared with other countries where farmers have collective bargaining power, there is limited support for farming activities in Singapore." Still, the family-run business cites as its key strengths high-technology processes, strict hygiene standards, quality feed and a premium egg-product brand.  

 

                                                         The premium range at Seng Choon

 

Seng Choon's eggs are hardly just eggs and neither is its feed limited to the usual ingredients of corn, protein meal and additives. Farm-3 eggs for instance, come from layers fed with fish oil, giving eggs enriched with omega-3 acids and vitamin E. Carefully formulated feed means eggs of lower cholesterol while a high beta-carotene layer diet produces the farm's newest product, carrot eggs. It should come as little surprise then that feed expenditure remains the highest, single component of variable costs for Seng Choon, at 70 percent of total production cost for each egg. 

 

Product research takes Koh, and his son and three daughters who manage the farm, to countries like France and the US, where layer nutrition sciences and the latest agro-technology are explored and remodelled back home. All this, Koh added good-naturedly, are "little troubles" compared with the assuring knowledge that consumers can be confident of biting into the highest standards in egg nutrition and food safety, when they next crack a Seng Choon egg.

 

 

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