KOTA TINGGI: Bio Desaru, an organic food valley, continues to see its agricultural investment growing as RM2.1 billion has been pumped into 32 projects to date.
The park, which is located close to Bandar Penawar here, today saw four more projects sealed between Johor State Biotechnology and Biodiversity Corp (J-Biotech) and several international investors that will utilise foreign expertise in agricultural cultivation and production.
The projects include development of marine farms for Nipah crab and high value fish such as the red snapper, jade perch and sea bass, which will tap on the aquaculture technology from Japan, Taiwan and Thailand.
This project with RBI Group (M) Sdn Bhd, valued at RM4 million, will be jointly developed with Bio Desaru Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of J-Biotech.
Another agreement signed by Bio Desaru is with international partner Aqua Partners International (M) Sdn Bhd for the development of an aquaculture project using the Recirculated Aquaculture System with an investment of RM500 million.
The two other agricultural projects will involve the mass production of dairy products and cheese manufacturing industry and will feature the Holstein breed of cows.
The RM15 million Holstein Desaru project will be developed on a 120ha land in Bio Desaru, while the RM250,000 Kenaf cultivation project will look into fibre production, often use in the furniture making industry and shipping.
The exchange of agreement for the projects was witnessed by Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin. Also present was J-Biotech chief executive officer Asman Shah Abd Rahman.
On the three problematic Bio Desaru projects that were mentioned in the Auditor-General’s Report 2017, Khaled said legal action has been taken against the three investors in the projects, which according to the AG’s Report were not developed.
"We have resorted to legal action on the three projects which includes terminating one of them, while two other projects are still under the state’s legal office review," he said.
Khaled said the three projects mentioned in the AG’s Report, which consists of a chicken farm, a prawn farm and a fish breeding project within Bio Desaru, were executed due to failure in obtaining development licence on bio-security, which is a requirement for projects in Bio-Desaru.