Blue Archipelago aims to be global player

By Sharen Kaur
Published in NST on April 14 2010

BLUE Archipelago Bhd, a shrimp producer owned by Khazanah Nasional Bhd, will make its maiden overseas shipment to the US, Europe and Japan in July.


It will start with 2,000 tonnes of shrimp worth around RM22 million, from its 420ha farm in Kerpan, Kedah, chief executive officer Shahridan Faiez said.

Exports will increase to 14,000 tonnes per annum, or RM150 million, by the first quarter of 2011 when the first phase of its RM250 million 1,000ha Integrated Shrimp Aquaculture Park (iSHARP) in Setiu, Terengganu, starts operations.

"We aim to be a global player in shrimp aquaculture. We are targeting 5 per cent of the global shrimp market for specific product category over the next five years," Shahridan said.

The current shrimp industry is worth around US$19 billion (RM61.37 billion) and growing annually by 11 per cent, he said at the signing ceremony between Blue Archipelago, SAP Malaysia, ObTech Asia Pacific and IBM Global Services in Petaling Jaya, Selangor, yesterday.

"I am bullish on growth in the industry. This is a sunrise industry as population and wealth is growing.

"At the same time, the supply of shrimps, which traditionally came from wild catch in the sea, is dropping now. We are in to fill the gap," Shahridan said.

Blue Archipelago plans to set up 5 iSHARPs under the 10th Malaysia Plan (2011-2015). Depending on the size, each will cost more than RM150 million.

Blue Archipelago is also investing RM4 million in information technology (IT) to operate more efficiently, and improve its inventory and resource management.

"In five years from now, we will have operations in other parts of Malaysia and overseas and we need to coordinate our operations from feed mills to processing plants to produce high-quality products," Shahridan said.

-ENDS-