Batam sits a 40-minute ferry ride from Singapore. Along its coastline, families still live in stilt houses built out over the water, going out daily in small boats — not the commercial trawlers that supply most of what ends up dried and bagged on a supermarket shelf.
Laut Kita buys directly from these fishermen. What they catch is sun-dried the same day, right where it’s landed — weather permitting. When it rains or the sky stays overcast too long, a mechanical dryer steps in so the catch isn’t lost, but sun-drying is the default, not the exception.
The rarer whitebait grade goes through an extra step — cooked before it’s dried, which is why it costs more and why you won’t find much of it locally. Everything is hand-graded by size and variety before it’s packed, not run through a machine sorter.
Why this matters
Most dried anchovies sold in Singapore pass through several layers of bulk trading before they reach a shelf. Laut Kita buys straight from the people who caught it, ships it over ourselves, and packs it by hand — so more of what you pay actually reaches the fishermen, and you know exactly whose catch you’re eating.