"Lobster Commercial Hatchery to be Build in Malaysia in The Next Two Years

From Nor Baizura Basri BOSTON, June 22 (Bernama) -- US-based Darden Restaurants Inc, which is setting up the world's first fully-integrated lobster aquaculture project in Sabah, the easternmost state of Malaysia, hopes to build the commercial hatchery in the next two years. Darden Aquafarm Inc president, Bill Herzig, said currently, the pilot farm in Semporna was up and running, with research and development now focusing on the lifecycle of the lobster. "We will be doing pallete hatchery this year, get the results from that and use them to finalise the design of phase one of the hatchery. We expect it to be up and running in two years from now," he told Malaysian reporters on the sidelines of the on-going BIO International Convention 2012 here on Wednesday. The initial phase of the hatchery would produce roughly one million lobsters, which in turn would produce about one million kg of products annually, he said. Herzig said Malaysia was a logical choice for the project due to its pristine waters to raise the lobsters. "The global supply is declining and we are concerned about sustainable supply. We believe aquaculture can reverse this trend and begin to take off pressure of the wild harvest," he said. At the moment, the global market for lobsters was worth over US$4 billion per year with China being the biggest consumer, accounting for US$3 billion, he said. "The products would be marketed in Asia initially, which is where the greatest demand is," he said. The lobster aquaculture venture would be carried out in partnership with Yayasan Sabah (Sabah Foundation) and another yet-to-be-identified local partner. For this project, Darden Restaurants Inc has set up two entities, Darden Aquasciences Sdn Bhd and Lobster Aqua Technologies Sdn Bhd, which has been granted BioNexus status by the Malaysian government. Darden Aquasciences will provide sufficient quantities of lobster fry for Lobster Aqua Technologies and its contract farmers to produce market-ready lobsters on a commercial scale. Darden Restaurants, with an annual turnover of US$7.5 billion, is the world’s largest full-service restaurant company with over 1,900 restaurants in the US and Canada. -- BERNAMA