Rui Alexandre Gonçalves is an aquaculture professional who combines scientific training with hands-on experience from his early days as a finfish farmer. He holds a degree in Marine Biology and Biotechnology, a master’s in Aquaculture and postgraduate studies in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Algarve. Rui completed his PhD at the University of Stirling, where he studied the effects of mycotoxins in rainbow trout. Rui holds an Executive MBA in Food & Agribusiness with TIAS Business School and Wageningen University.
Over the years, Rui has worked in hatchery management, fish nutrition and animal health, holding roles in Portugal, Norway, and internationally in industry and research. He later joined Biomin and Lucta SA, focusing on innovation and product development in aquaculture feed additives. Rui is currently Deputy Director of Aquaculture at Singapore’s Marine Aquaculture Centre, where he leads R&D efforts and supports the strategic sustainable growth initiatives for the local aquaculture sector.
You have built a career that spans hands-on aquaculture, industry innovation and now public-sector leadership. How have these experiences shaped your approach to developing Singapore’s aquaculture ecosystem at the Singapore Food Agency (SFA)?
I believe my past experiences come together very meaningfully in my role at SFA. My hands-on background allows me to put myself in the shoes of our farmers. As I often remind my colleagues, the challenges we face in Singapore are not unique — they mirror those in other parts of the world, and lessons can be drawn from others and translated to our reality and context in Singapore.
Throughout my career, I’ve been fortunate to gain exposure to key aquaculture markets globally, which now helps me at SFA to draw useful parallels and insights. For instance, the current price squeeze in Southeast Asia — which is affecting farm profitability — resembles the situation faced by the seabream and seabass industries in Southern Europe between 2007 and 2009, when increasing production at lower costs from Greece and Turkey reshaped market dynamics. Some of the approaches taken to face such price squeezes in the EU can certainly also be deployed in Singapore.
My years in the private sector, engaging with some of the world’s largest aquaculture players, have given me valuable strategic perspective on how to navigate similar challenges today, especially understanding well what the private sector can or already does better than us, helping to better shape goals and partnerships. I feel privileged to contribute to SFA’s mission, and it continues to be a deeply enriching learning journey for me.
What are the key R&D priorities at the Marine Aquaculture Centre (MAC) today – particularly in genetics, nutrition and fish health – and how do they translate into commercial impact for local farms?
MAC’s success lies in its strong team of dedicated professionals who enable us to address national priorities and farmers’ needs. Our current focus is on improving the quality and robustness of inputs for our key species such as Asian Seabass, Red Snapper and Marine Tilapia.
A major milestone is our genetic selection program for Asian Seabass, now starting its fifth generation (F5). To ensure continuous availability of high-quality eggs for local farms, we recently established the National Broodstock Centre, which is based at and managed by MAC. We are also advancing red snapper spawning and larval development protocols, expanding the diversity and quality of locally bred species.
To strengthen hatchery performance, SFA has launched a Hatchery Development Program, directly supporting key hatcheries to enhance productivity. Nutrition is another critical area — especially broodstock nutrition. MAC is in the final stages of developing a proprietary spawning diet for Asian Seabass, an important step toward greater quality, predictability and resilience in national broodstock operations.
Looking ahead, 2026 will mark a turning point for aquaculture nutrition in Singapore with the launch of the Feed and Feed Ingredients Technology Centre (F2TC), in partnership with the Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT). F2TC will serve as a one-stop hub for feed and ingredient innovation, strengthening MAC’s capabilities. Beyond SFA and SIT, several partners are already engaged in this initiative, and I look forward to sharing more details soon.
MAC will remain a vital platform where local Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs) can execute R&D, and where private industry can find an ecosystem equipped to support their goals. We already work closely with partners such as INVE, Aboitiz Foods and Singapore Aquaculture Technologies, and we are eager to expand collaborations further.
How do you see advances in aquafeed formulation and additives contributing to resilience, performance,and sustainability in Singapore’s marine aquaculture sector?
Feed is both a critical and vulnerable component of Singapore’s aquaculture value chain. With no local feed production, our sector is exposed to supply fluctuations and import dependencies. In this context, farm-level application of feed additives offers a practical path to improving performance and resilience, and we expect to see much greater focus and progress in this area in the coming years — particularly through initiatives supported by the Aquapolis Fund.
A particularly exciting development is our ongoing work on circular feed ingredients — transforming local by-products into sustainable aquafeed components. This is still in the early stages, but the progress has been very encouraging. F2TC will play a central role in advancing this field, helping to turn Singapore into a regional reference point for circular and sustainable aquafeed innovation.
Singapore faces unique constraints, including limited space, high biosecurity standards, and the need for high productivity. What production systems, technologies, or management approaches do you see as most critical for overcoming these challenges?
Indeed, Singapore operates under a set of constraints that create a challenging environment — limited space, high operational costs and increasingly, climate change. This makes efficiency and resilience key pillars of our strategy.
Closed and semi-closed systems offer strong climate resilience, but they also come with higher costs, which not all species can absorb given their market margins. Therefore, Singapore’s approach must remain pragmatic and diversified — combining inland and sea-based systems with varying levels of environmental exposure to balance cost, risk and productivity.
SFA continues to support farmers through innovation deployment and tailored solutions that help them enhance efficiency and sustainability, ensuring that technology adoption truly matches farm realities.
How does SFA work with feed companies, farmers, and technology providers to accelerate innovation while maintaining food safety and consumer confidence?
SFA sees itself as a facilitator and enabler within Singapore’s aquaculture ecosystem. The key actors are our IHLs, private industry partners and farmers, while SFA plays a coordinating role across regulation, food safety and industry engagement.
We work closely with other agencies — most notably the Economic Development Board (EDB) — to attract and engage private-sector partners whose expertise and investment can help Singapore achieve its aquaculture goals. Feed remains a strategic focus area, given its high contribution to operational costs, and establishing closer collaborations with feed mills and technology providers is a continuing priority.
Looking ahead 5–10 years, what role do you see Singapore playing in the wider regional and global aquaculture landscape? Where do you believe the greatest opportunities lie for feed, nutrition and technology providers?
Forecasting the next decade is challenging, especially as the Asia–Pacific aquaculture sector is undergoing rapid transformation on multiple fronts. However, Singapore’s direction is clear: we aim to enhance local aquaculture productivity and resilience through a scientific, evidence-based approach.
SFA plays a structural role in setting R&D priorities, securing funding pathways for IHLs and facilitating the translation of research outcomes directly to farms. This integrated model — linking research, policy and industry — ensures that knowledge generated locally can be readily applied and shared regionally.
In the next 10 years, I believe Singapore’s aquaculture will become more professionalised, resilient and value-driven, with a robust value chain anchored on high-quality inputs and traceable outputs. Our ambition is for Singapore to be recognised as a regional hub for tropical marine aquaculture R&D, and potentially, a global reference point for sustainable, high-tech aquaculture systems.
