Benefits from Strategic Food Partnership with New Zealand for Singaporeans and Local Businesses

The Strategic Food Partnership (SFP) with New Zealand, which was launched in October 2025, aims to strengthen food cooperation between Singapore and New Zealand in areas such as agri-food trade and supply chains, regulations and standards, biosecurity, and research and innovation. This complements the Agreement on Trade in Essential Supplies, which Singapore has concluded substantive negotiations with New Zealand. Under the agreement, both sides can continue to receive essential supplies, including food items, during supply chain disruptions.

One initiative we are exploring under the SFP is to expand the existing regionalisation arrangement for Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza to include other significant animal diseases, such as African Swine Fever and Foot and Mouth Disease. This would minimise trade disruptions during animal disease outbreaks and can help to maintain consistent food supplies from unaffected regions in New Zealand.

We will also look at ways to facilitate greater food trade. These could include facilitating exchanges between both countries' public and private sector stakeholders, such as food and logistics industry players, to identify pain points, and explore solutions and commercialisation and investment opportunities.

Thank you, Speaker, and I thank the Minister and her Ministry for working so hard at food resilience. Singaporeans love food and we import more than 90%, so this is real important work. I have two supplementary questions.

The first is really on global partnerships as the new pillar. Could the Minister elaborate a little bit more about how certain regions, which we are exploring these partnerships with, the strategy behind identifying these regional priorities? And secondly, could the Minister also describe a little bit more about what sort of collaborations are being pursued as part of the partnerships, be it trade in essential supplies, as mentioned with New Zealand, or also co-investments or technology collaboration, long-term offtake agreements, and so forth?

With regard to the second supplementary question, I think there are many potential areas where we can work with the New Zealand businesses as well as regulators.

As I mentioned, one example we are looking at is how we can better our regulatory framework so as to reduce the chances of disruption in the areas in case of disease outbreak. There are other areas – whether it is in research and innovation, whether it is in investments cooperation, we will do our very best on both sides to facilitate so that we can benefit from more regular exchanges and also trade-facilitated visits between the two countries.

As to the first question on global partnership, it is an important pillar of our Singapore Food Story 2. I think it fully deserves a better presentation and discussion. So, I would encourage the Member to either file a separate Parliamentary Question or to participate fully when we discuss the Singapore Food Story 2 during the Committee of Supply debate.