Public-listed firm, Japanese partner to grow vegetables in Bintan for fresh picking by visitors, export to Singapore

SINGAPORE — From the first quarter of next year, visitors to Bintan Island, Indonesia will be able to pick cherry tomatoes and eat kale that are freshly harvested from two greenhouses on the island. 

The vegetables will also be supplied to restaurants on Bintan and exported to Singapore by 2021. 

Both greenhouses are part of the Gallant Obayashi Green Agritech Park, which will be built at the far north of Bintan by the end of this year. 

Plans to construct the 5ha park were unveiled on Tuesday (14 Jan) by its developer PT Persada Hijau Cemerlang (PHC) in partnership with Japan-based Obayashi Corporation, which was involved in the development of Jewel Changi Airport.

PHC is owned by the Singapore-listed investment firm Gallant Venture, the developer of Bintan Resorts which has 15 resorts and 2,000 rooms on Bintan. 

Mr Eugene Cho Park, executive director and chief executive officer of Gallant Venture, said that aside from growing vegetables, the greenhouses will serve to promote ecotourism to attract more visitors.

Tourists may visit the Visitor and Education Centre that is part of the park to learn how agri-technology works. They may also sign up to pick cherry tomatoes from one of the greenhouses.

“Ecotourism is one of the areas where we have seen increasing demand, as tourists want more than just to sit on the beach,” he said.

Of the 1.2 million international visitors to Bintan Resorts last year, 40 per cent took part in ecotourism activities at turtle hatcheries, mangroves and the new Marine Life Discovery Park, Mr Park said. 

However, he observed that such experiential activities are not as popular with Singaporean tourists who make up 30 per cent of all visitors.

“Singaporeans prefer to go golfing, go for spas and lay on the beach,” he said.

TARGET HARVEST TO BE THE SAME AS IN JAPAN

Each of the greenhouses is 5,000-sqm — or the size of two football fields — and the target volume of vegetables to be grown in each is 100 tonnes for every harvest.

This is the amount that is produced in a similar-sized greenhouse in Japan.

The vegetables harvested will be supplied to restaurants and resorts under the Bintan Resorts banner and the rest will be exported to Singapore next year, although Gallant Venture declined to give figures for how much will be exported and how much will be supplied in Bintan.

The agri-technology to be used to grow the crops is borrowed from greenhouses in the Oak Katori Farm that the Obayashi Corporation built in Chiba, Japan in 2014 and adapted to Singapore’s climate.

A key feature is that it regulates the humidity and light intensity of the interior. Greenhouses are structures that typically keep vegetables warm from cold weather, but given Singapore’s tropical climate, the agri-tech park’s greenhouses will have cooling units to lower its internal temperature.

The greenhouses also have eco-friendly features such as solar panels that will help to generate energy for the cooling units and will use 90 per cent less water compared with conventional farming in open fields. 

Mr Junya Noda, deputy general manager of the new business department at Obayashi Corporation, said that by 2023, the greenhouses are expected to expand to about 2ha to 10ha and other leafy vegetables will be produced.