Empurau as national fish, breeder suggests to Tourism Malaysia boss

KUCHING: Tourism Malaysia will help to promote Sarawak’s highly-prized freshwater fish, the empurau, to tourists and overseas foodies.

Its chairman Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen promised to introduce the delicious fish, also dubbed “King of Sarawak Rivers” during her tourism missions to Hong Kong, China and Taiwan after she tasted it for the first time here on Wednesday.

The former Tourism Minister was treated to the steamed cultured fish from LTT Aquaculture’s farm in Asajaya where she visited while here for the Asean Tourism Forum.

LTT Aquaculture is Malaysia’s largest breeder for the empurau, which is now flown to Hong Kong, Singapore and Peninsular Malaysia.

What a big catch: Dr Ng and Lu with a 9kg empurau at the LTT Aquaculture farm in Asajaya.

The farm has some 20,000 tails of marketable empurau, which is sold for RM750 per kilo to importers in Hong Kong.

These importers supply the live fish to top restaurants in Hong Kong, Macau and China.

According to LTT Aquaculture managing director Bill Lu, Dr Ng promised to lend a helping hand in promoting the unique empurau.

“She has a lot of contacts with fine dining restaurants in these countries,” he said yesterday.

Dr Ng, according to Lu, would help to feature the empurau in Tourism Malaysia publications and list the restaurants here where the fish is available to tourists.

They are Joyous Shanghai Restaurant, The Happy Diner Restaurant, Cheng De Restaurant, Huang Shang Huang Restaurant and Damai Bayridge Restaurant.

“I have suggested to Dr Ng to make empurau the national fish. The foreign VIPs coming to Malaysia should be served high-value local fish like empurau instead of imported fish like salmon,” said Lu.