By Justin Chan

SHRIMP farming is something Singaporeans are only tangentially familiar with through recreational prawning.

But for T-Tech Asia co-founder and significant shareholder Alex Chin, shrimp farming represents a golden opportunity.

China's burgeoning and increasingly affluent population, combined with Chinese government efforts to ensure internal food sustainability and sufficiency, has led to an increase in demand for shrimp.

But shrimps are notoriously finicky and fragile creatures: white-spot disease and taura disease can exterminate entire harvests.

And current agricultural practices of using second and third generation shrimp fry for cultivation has exacerbated the problem, due to their increased susceptibility to disease and slightly slower growth rates.

Monocultural cultivation, where there is only one species in an entire farming facility, renders them all susceptible to the same disease.

And inadequate infrastructure contributes to the rapid spread of disease once an infection vector enters the chain of production.

Second or third generation shrimp fry are fry bred from shrimp that were being farmed. The problem that arises is that the previous generations susceptibility to disease continues through the genetic line, contributing to lost harvests as entire farms are purged by a single infection.

Enter T-Tech Asia and its first generation shrimp fry.

T-Tech specialises in breeding and nurturing specific pathogen free and specific pathogen resistant (SPF/SPR) shrimp fry for sale to farmers.

Though these shrimp fry cost up to 30 per cent more than second and third generation shrimp fry, the lower mortality rates and greater average size of the shrimp at the time of harvest more than make up for the higher initial outlay.

While it only seems logical that shrimp farmers everywhere would seize on first generation fry as their holy grail to avoid flushing an entire pond of shrimp the moment a few of them start going off colour, the supply of first generation fry in China is of notoriously dubious quality.

To save money, many broodstock firms are cutting corners and implementing less-than-complete sanitation and breeding protocols.

Farmers are therefore understandably sceptical of the quality of the fry they receive from the few players that operate in the open market.

T-Tech has managed to be a strong player due to its management's approach to internal personnel management and development of networks with local municipalities.

In Shanghai, where T-Tech has captured 30 per cent of the market for first generation fry, despite the presence of at least six competitors, relationships with the local government have been especially useful.

'We succeeded because the local government knows that we alone can deliver results, and the farmers trust the government endorsement of our merchandise,' says Mr Chin.

This strong endorsement has allowed T-Tech to increase sales in Shanghai from 1.2 billion fry to three billion, and brings T-Tech's total sales to five billion on the back of strong demand in Chongqing and Jiangsu, where farmers have caught on to the benefits of using first generation fry.

The strong success of T-Tech in its initial starting areas of Shanghai, Chongqing and Jiangsu provinces have encouraged the company to take a bullish attitude towards expansion.

With new grow-out businesses on the uptake and new hatcheries in Fujian, T-Tech expects its business to increase significantly in 2010 - almost 10 times the revenue of 14.6 million yuan (S$2.9 million) in 2009.

The business principle of engaging key staff as shareholders has encouraged a cohesive organisational structure.

Mr Chin also highlights the personal commitment that all employees make in understanding the business. Everyone is encouraged to go to the hatcheries.

Asked what would be the best advice for Singaporeans looking to set up business in China, Mr Chin says simply: 'Live in China.' His success is testament to the viability of his mentality.

This article was first published in The Business Times.