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New lobster farm to boost local aquaculture industry

Published by Afterschool.my on Nov 13, 2012, 06:45 am

  • RM2 billion lobster farm to produce 14,000 high-income jobs in aquaculture
  • Global market for lobsters is estimated to be over US$4 billion, or about RM12 billion a year

10 years from now, a wide spectrum of skills ranging from PhD and Masters level scientists and engineers, to aquaculture specialists and skilled aquaculture technicians would be needed for the world's largest Integrated Lobster Aquaculture Park (iLAP) in Malaysia.

The iLAP is expected to produce up to 40 million pounds of hatchery-based tropical Sabah native spiny lobsters when it reaches maximum capacity in 2029, creating more than 14,000 high income jobs by 2022.

The global market for lobsters is estimated to be over US$4 billion, or about RM12 billion a year with the Asia Pacific region, particularly China, accounting for about 75 per cent of the total market

Valued at RM2 billion, its project owners include Darden Aquascience Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of Darden Restaurants Inc, Nexus Sustainable Seafood Sdn Bhd and Inno Fisheries Sdn Bhd. Darden Restaurants, Inc., is the world's largest full-service restaurant company, owns and operates more than 2,000 restaurants that generate USD8 billion in annual sales.

This 9,300 hectare park that is earmarked for Semporna would become the world's first fully integrated commercial lobster hatchery.Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman said it would place Malaysia and Sabah on the global aquaculture map as it develops and transforms into a pioneering sustainable lobster aquaculture initiative.
"It is our hope that there will be a number of high-income farmers in Sabah's east coast once this project starts and develops," he said.
Musa also believed this collaboration would attract other foreign investors who are keen to venture into the food production based sector in Malaysia.

The target for the agriculture component of the National Key Economic Areas is to raise the total Gross National Income (GNI) contribution of the sector by RM34 billion to reach RM49 billion by the year 2020, he said.

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