A small farm. A bigger question.
By Malai Hassan Othman | KopiTalk with MHO
Last Tuesday morning, in a modest facility at Jalan Jerudong, Brunei took a small but deliberate step into a new corner of the agri-food economy.
Barakah Bioindustries Company, or BBIC, held the soft launching of its Spirulina Pilot Project on 28 April 2026 — marking what it describes as Brunei’s first photobioreactor-based spirulina cultivation operation. The event was officiated by Yang Berhormat Awang Zainol bin Haji Mohamed, Member of the Legislative Council, who performed the ribbon-cutting at the pilot site located at No. 15, Simpang 323, Jalan Jerudong. The programme included presentations on spirulina farming and its commercial applications, a live bioreactor demonstration and a discussion session with guests.
On the surface, it was a small launch. No grand factory. No large commercial farm. No dramatic announcement.
But perhaps that is exactly why the moment matters.
In a country where national ambitions are often announced in big halls, under big banners, with big words, this was a quieter kind of beginning — five spirulina photobioreactors assembled at a small site, run by a local company, with the help of Australian technical partners, placed directly within Brunei’s continuing search for food security, economic diversification and practical innovation.
BBIC Managing Director Syed Abdul Hadi was careful not to oversell the moment.
“What you see here today is not a grand launch. It is not a factory. It is not a finished product. It is the beginning of something — and that is exactly how we want to present it,” he said in his welcoming speech. “Every meaningful journey begins with a single, deliberate step. And this is ours.”
That honesty gave the event its strength.
Brunei does not need another polished announcement that disappears after the applause. It needs working examples — however small — of people turning national priorities into something real, testable and expandable.
The timing was hard to ignore.
Just days before the BBIC launch, Brunei had hosted the 38th FAO Regional Conference for Asia and the Pacific — APRC38 — from 20 to 24 April 2026. It was the first time Brunei hosted the UN regional food and agriculture conference, bringing together ministers and senior officials from 46 nations under the theme “Nurturing Innovation for Agri-Food Systems Transformation.”
The message from that conference was unambiguous. Food security is no longer simply about having enough on supermarket shelves. It is about access, nutrition, resilience, local production and regional cooperation. For Brunei — a country where food imports account for more than 90 per cent of consumption and where the food import bill reached BND 686.3 million in 2025 — the question is simple but serious: how much longer can the country talk about food security without building more of its own production capacity?
This is where spirulina enters the picture.
Spirulina is a blue-green microalgae known for its high protein content and potential use in nutrition, health products and aquaculture feed. In BBIC’s project presentation, spirulina was introduced not only as a health supplement, but as a possible local feed ingredient for hatcheries, fish farms and other aquaculture operations.
That matters because much of Brunei’s food and feed system still depends heavily on imports. When prices rise, local producers feel it. When shipments are delayed, small operators absorb the cost. When global supply chains become unstable, countries that cannot produce enough for themselves become exposed. A small spirulina pilot will not solve all that. Nobody should pretend it will. But it points to the kind of thinking Brunei needs more of: produce locally where possible, build technical capability, reduce unnecessary dependence, create new skills, and test new industries before the window narrows.
The project investment figure was not disclosed at the launch. What BBIC did disclose is arguably more important: how the investment is being used.
Syed Abdul Hadi described the partnership plainly: Barakah and Selvanex were not in a buyer-seller relationship. The Australians did not ship equipment, collect payment and leave. They came to build alongside the local team.
“What we are gaining from this partnership is not a product. It is a capability,” he said.
That sentence deserves attention. For too long, too many projects in Brunei have been measured by what is bought, installed or launched. Real development is not just about hardware. It is about whether Bruneians learn to operate, maintain, improve, adapt and eventually scale the system themselves. That is the difference between buying technology and acquiring capability.
The soft launch brought together representatives from universities, government agencies, business chambers, industry players and community groups. Among those present were Universiti Teknologi Brunei, Universiti Brunei Darussalam, Universiti Islam Sultan Sharif Ali, Jabatan Perikanan, the Brunei Economic Development Board, the National Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Malay Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Serikandi Aquaculture, Serikandi Poultry Farm and the Australian High Commission.
That mix of attendees was important. Spirulina cannot grow into a serious local industry if it remains inside one small facility in Jalan Jerudong. It needs researchers to study it under Brunei’s tropical conditions. It needs regulators who understand its potential as feed or food. It needs fish farmers and poultry operators willing to test its usefulness. It needs young Bruneians to see it as a skills pathway. It needs business partners who can help turn a pilot into a repeatable model.
In BBIC’s project presentation, the site was described as a working learning facility, not a full-scale factory. The immediate task is to test whether spirulina can be grown reliably and affordably under Brunei’s climate, while building standard practices and quality controls. That is the right language. A pilot project should be allowed to be a pilot project — tested, challenged, measured and improved.
The danger in Brunei is that too many initiatives are either celebrated too early or abandoned too quietly. What is needed is disciplined follow-through.
The road ahead, according to BBIC’s presentation, begins with proving the system at Jalan Jerudong, then expanding with partner farmers, and eventually scaling across Brunei if the model works. That “if” is important.
The real test is not whether the launch was successful. It was. The real test is what happens after the chairs are cleared, the guests go home, and the tanks continue running. Can the system produce consistently? Can costs be controlled? Can spirulina be processed to the standard local farms need? Can young Bruneians be drawn into a new kind of agri-tech work? Can universities engage it as research? Can government agencies support it without slowing it with red tape?
These are the questions that will determine whether last Tuesday was a pleasant ceremony or the start of something more substantial.
For now, what BBIC has done is place a small working example on the table. It is not the whole answer to food security. It is not yet an industry. It is not yet an export story. But it is a visible attempt to respond to a national challenge with action rather than rhetoric.
And sometimes, that is where change begins — not with a slogan, but with a working system that people can touch, question, improve and build upon.
In a Brunei that often asks what diversification really looks like, the answer may not always begin in a boardroom or a masterplan. Sometimes it begins quietly, last Tuesday morning, beside five green tanks in Jalan Jerudong.
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