Singapore’s Three Food Baskets
To ensure Singapore’s food security, the SFA is pursuing three broad strategies also known as our food baskets:
1. Diversifying Food Import Sources
Importing food from many different countries reduces the risk of over-reliance on a single supply source. This allows importers to ramp up supply from other sources if the supply from any source country is disrupted.
- Today, we have diversified our food sources to over 170 countries and regions.
- For importers of key food items, the SFA has also introduced a requirement to adopt business continuity plans, which may include import source diversification to mitigate the impact of food supply disruptions.
2. Growing Local
Local food production mitigates our reliance on imports and provides a critical buffer during supply disruptions.
- The “30 by 30” Target
We are working to build up the capability and capacity of our agri-food industry to produce 30% of our nutritional needs locally and sustainably by 2030. This target is featured in the Singapore Green Plan 2030 launched in February 2021, and is one of the concrete steps we are taking to enhance our resilience against climate change.
3. Growing Overseas
Singapore is also supporting local food production companies to set up overseas and export their produce back to Singapore, contributing to our food security. By venturing overseas, companies can overcome land and manpower constraints, and access new and bigger markets.
This strategy helps Singapore build strategic relations with key partners and helps local companies export their urban food solutions.
Developments Singaporeans Can Look Forward To
For many years, Singapore has been preparing for the possibility of serious food disruptions, whether due to global pandemics, climate change, geopolitical developments or other factors.
This has served us well during the COVID-19 period, ensuring that no disruption from any single source affected us too severely.
In the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, the closure of air routes led to an increase in freight costs for certain commodities, such as chilled pork from Australia. This was quickly managed as importers were able to switch to alternate sources where necessary. The Australian authorities also subsequently committed to keep supply lines open through weekly flights, which helped to ease the situation.
Nonetheless, COVID-19 has underscored the importance of having a buffer in the event of global supply disruptions. Together with the industry, the SFA is working to build up Singapore’s local capabilities, ramp up local food production, and boost this buffer.
To accelerate our efforts, close to S$40 million of funding was set aside under a “30 x 30” Express grant established in 2020 to support the agri-food industry to “grow more and grow faster”.
A $60 million Agri-Food Cluster Transformation Fund was also launched in 2021 to support the transformation of the agri-food sector into one that is highly productive, climate resilient and resource efficient.
Championing R&D
Leveraging research and development (R&D) is key to our “30 by 30” target, and the SFA has been facilitating more investments in the agri-food space to encourage R&D and providing strong support to the industry.
Up to $144 million has been allocated for food-related R&D programmes under a five-year Research, Innovation and Enterprise 2020 Plan. The SFA has awarded over $23 million in funding to 12 projects under a grant call for R&D in sustainable urban food production.
The SFA has also established a new aquaculture nutrition facility to boost research on fish nutrition and feed development.