Debated in Parliament on 6 Jul 2021.
Mr Leon Perera asked the Minister for Sustainability and the Environment under the "30 by 30" food production target of SFA (a) what is the breakdown of local production targets for vegetables, eggs and fish; (b) whether there are local production targets for other farms such as goat, frog, shrimp, cattle and other food and, if not, why; and (c) what is the progress to-date towards the "30 by 30" target, broken down by food type.
The "30 by 30" goal was announced in 2019 to raise our ambition for local food production and enhance the resilience of Singapore’s food supply. This goal complements other strategies such as the diversification of our food imports, facilitating our companies to grow overseas and stockpiling of food items. The "30 by 30" goal is defined as meeting 30% of our nutritional needs locally by 2030, up from less than 10% today.
Local food production plays a key role in buffering against import disruptions. We launched the 30x30 Express Grant Call last year to support our farmers to produce more hen shell eggs, food fish and leafy vegetables. These are commonly-consumed food items that our local agri-food industry has been able to produce in a resource efficient and commercially sustainable manner, and with capabilities to ramp up production quickly. These food items also have a relatively short shelf life, making stockpiling a less practical option against supply disruptions.
As the local agri-tech industry is relatively nascent, we do not intend to fix the targets for each food item under the "30 by 30" goal at this stage. SFA will continue to develop our food production plans with our stakeholders, taking into consideration the productivity, resource efficiency and technologies to be deployed. While we are prioritising the production of hen shell eggs, food fish and leafy vegetables in our grants and land tenders, support is available for the production of other food items, as long as they contribute to our food security.
PAPERCUTS