Welcome to Rong Yao Fisheries
Located off the coast of Pulau Ubin, Rong Yao Fisheries has been feeding Singaporeans with the sea’s bounty for over a decade.
The farm has a reputation for its excellence, being among the pilot batch of farms awarded with the Good Aquaculture Practice (GAP) for Fish Farming certification in 2014. In 2021, Rong Yao Fisheries was certified with the 2-star badge under the Good Agricultural Practice (GAP) standard for its high-quality produce.
Combining an old school open sea cage farm with modern data collection systems, Rong Yao was one of the first farms in Singapore to cultivate Golden Pomfret—also known as Pompano— with a yield of 80-100 tonnes a year.
Nature versus know-how
Alawn Koh—Head of Business Development at Rong Yao Fisheries—shares fascinating farming insights into how Rong Yao nurtures its fish.
Working with nature
An open cage sea farming system allows Rong Yao to keep costs and prices low for Singaporean consumers, but it also comes with its own challenges to surmount.
“You can try to fight it, but in the end, nature wins,” Alawn shares. “We used to rear Red Snappers, Golden Trevally, Threadfin and Seabass, but ultimately decided to specialise in Golden Pomfret. It’s a resilient species with good survival rates and a growth period of four to six months.”
A data-driven approach
While Rong Yao adopts a more traditional approach to nurturing its Golden Pomfret, its approach is far from simplistic, with a sophisticated data management system for proper recording and traceability.
“We’re definitely a hybrid farm,” Alawn informs us. “We’re an open sea cage farm, but a lot of our record-keeping processes are digitized. The system helps us gauge various elements like feed usage, survival rates, schedule of net changes, estimated yield of each net amongst others.”
Working with one's hands
Despite the idyllic surroundings, working on a sea farm is far from being a breeze. “I’ve done the hands-on aspect of day-to-day farming, and it’s not easy…especially at my age!” says Alawn. “Just harvesting the fish, you have to haul in a net of about 20 to 30 kilograms…and not just once, but 30-40 times sometimes! And that’s not even mentioning gill tagging…it’s a labour intensive process since everything’s done by hand.”
From hatching to harvesting
To control the supply chain and reduce costs, Rong Yao Fisheries works with a nursery in Neo Tiew to supply the farm with its fry. “We work with a partner nursery in Kranji—they import day-old golden pomfret larvae, which they grow to about two-and-a-half inches to supply us,” Alawn says. “They need to be around that size before they can be brought out safely to the sea cages to minimise mortality.”
Fascinating farm facts
Modern day farming is a fascinating profession. Learn more about Rong Yao Fisheries with these fun factoids.
Depending on whether they end up on your dinner table or a plate at a restaurant, the golden pomfret at Rong Yao are grown to different sizes. Supermarkets usually require a fish of around 400 to 600 grams, while restaurants may require fish of around 700 grams.
What’s in a name? Besides being known as the golden pomfret, the species of fish reared at Rong Yao Fisheries is also known as the buck-nosed trevally and snub-nosed dart.
Golden pomfret can be found all over the globe, from the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans to the seas of Norway and Japan.
Feast for SG's food security
Eat local and do your part to support our local farming community.
Sample the gold standard for golden pomfret—Rong Yao’s delicious seafood can be found at various NTUC FairPrice Outlets.
