Satria is from an ancient Sanskrit word meaning “gallant warrior” or knights and in fact, our logo is a stylized representation of a knight’s visor. Aquaculture is like a constant battle against disease, low pricing and international competition. We’ve found that in order to stand out and create niche opportunities, size matters. Consumers like large prawns and they command premium pricing. Better technology is required for growing larger prawns and this is where we can win the battle. We’ve recently grown Tiger prawns to 35-55 gram average sizes and Whiteleg shrimp to over 20-27 gram average sizes which stands out from the industry’s average.
We do not use antibiotics at all, relying instead on producing beneficial bacteria ourselves (probiotics) to suppress pathogenic bacteria while cleaning the pond water at the same time. This is why our effluent’s nitrate and phosphate concentrations meet Drinking Water standards! In fact, by taking care of the environment, our prawns feel so comfortable that they grow to a larger size!
Many think prawn culture is unsustainable because of the high failure rate of farms. In the neighboring state of Sarawak, 85% of the farms have shut down over the last few years. In actual fact, by taking care of the environment our prawns live in, we are able to produce successful crops sustainably.
We also believe in integration so that quality control may be kept. All our products are produced in our hatcheries, grown in our farms and processed by our processing plant. They are sent for testing in our laboratories and grown using our own probiotics. All our farms are within 2 hours radius from our processing plant so quality is kept as fresh as possible.
All our farms are online and 15 Independent Sciences Officers (ISOs) pass data to the Senior Operations Executive (SOE) 3 times weekly for analysis and discussion. If any problem arises that the SOE needs clarification on, the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) is consulted. By the end of 2008, we hope that an Artificial Intelligence program called CYBORG will handle 95% of the daily technical decision making processes.
