Update on Food Security Strategy with Revised 2035 Fibre and Protein Production Targets

Ms He Ting Ru asked the Minister for Sustainability and the Environment (a) what is the rationale for setting targets specifically for (i) fibre and (ii) protein production in the Ministry's new 2035 farming goals; and (b) how is Singapore's food security measured vis-à-vis local farming production.

Mr Speaker, the previous "30 by 30" strategy sought to develop local capability and capacity to produce 30% of our nutritional needs by 2030. This has evolved into the Singapore Food Story 2, which aims to bring about overall food resilience. This ensures that we have sufficient food supply in times of disruption. Local production is one of the food security pillars of the Singapore Food Story 2, complemented by three other pillars which are import diversification, stockpiling and global partnerships.

We want to work with our local farms to build up the capability and capacity to supply 20% of our local consumption of fresh leafy and fruited vegetables, beansprouts and mushrooms; and 30% of our local consumption of eggs and seafood.

The revised local production targets take into account the important role of local food production as a regenerative and assured source of fresh food, the strengths of our local farming ecosystem and their potential for growth.

We will focus on food types that are feasible to be produced at scale efficiently. This is consistently applied in our grants and land tenders.

Protein types such as meats are not part of the revised targets due to factors such as resource efficiency, land intensity and climate conditions. Alternative protein is also excluded given the nascency of the sector. What we are not intending to produce locally, such as rice and poultry, will be considered under other pillars of the Singapore Food Story 2 such as import diversification and stockpiling.

The revised targets balance ambition and pragmatism, by considering what we can produce and scale locally as well as the challenges our nascent sector faces, including higher production costs and the need for substitute demand. To achieve them, we will continue to find ways to support new and existing farms in lowering production costs, building capability, strengthening the supply resilience of inputs and enhancing demand offtake.

The Government will continue to invest efforts in building local production capability and capacity. Food security is a joint responsibility that requires the nation's collective effort. We also need strong support from local consumers and businesses which is essential for our farms to achieve scale and commercial viability.

We will provide more information on our support schemes at the coming Committee of Supply (COS).

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I thank the Senior Minister of State for his reply. I have two supplementary questions. The first concerns farms. Small farms and food producers form part of Singapore's small and medium enterprise landscape. What concrete job creation or retention targets accompany the new production goals, especially for sectors affected by high production costs and workforce shortages?

My second supplementary question pertains to consumers. Given that locally produced food often cost more than imported alternatives, how did the Ministry assess the potential price impacts on households, if the revised targets are met? What measures are in place to prevent local production from inadvertently raising food prices for Singaporean families?

I thank the Member for his questions; very important ones, especially if you are thinking of how we are supporting the local production in our farms.

Over the past few years, as the Member has highlighted, the global agri-food sector has faced headwinds. We have also faced supply chain disruptions ever since COVID-19 and we have seen how those have impacted us. Of course, Singapore also faces other challenges, such as high energy costs, labour constraints, especially since farming is not exactly one of the more favoured jobs, as the Member was alluding to. And therefore, I think in terms of how we support our farms, it has to be in sustainable ways, such as capability development, providing funding and schemes through our Agri-Food Cluster Transformation Fund. This helps our farms build up capability in new areas such as agri-tech.

So, we have seen farms such as Green Harvest, as an example, who today own several farm plots and already supply to many of our supermarkets, even wet markets as well. While they have been established over decades, they have also been able to transform. They set up a joint venture, Green Harvest, together with Team Build Construction. Today, if you compare their traditional farms, which are in Lim Chu Kang, and their new farms, I think you can see that the yields are about three times more than what they do in the traditional farms – using agri-tech, using new technologies, using new ways of doing things.

We want to help our farmers transform, because with higher yields, it also means that they can be more competitive. They can provide a different suite of offerings. And certainly, when we think about Singapore's land constraints, where only 1% of our land use is dedicated to farms and farming, I think then, we have to be really smart about how we use our farms to achieve these outputs.

Having said that, I am also going to say that I think it is also important that as we look at agri-tech, agri-food, new technology, new capabilities, it also has to overcome some of our constraints. Energy use, I think, is one area in which some of our new farms are able to overcome – they are now looking at low-energy type facilities, where they can reduce energy costs. At the same time, automation helps us reduce manpower.

I have spoken about Green Harvest that today already produces about three times the yield of traditional farms. On the extreme end, we also have Greenphyto which just, I think some Members may have read in the news, launched last week, at the cost of about $80 million investment. But not everyone can reach that. That is the extreme. What it claims to do is to get up to about almost 45 times yield of our traditional farms. If you can get to somewhere in between, then that, I think changes the game for our agri-food sector.

I want us to imagine a very different food sector in the near future where we talk about not just food resilience in terms of local farming, but also how we use our other pillars in the Singapore Food Story 2, which has evolved our food resilience narrative. I have spoken about stockpiling at the last Sitting. There is also import diversification. There are also global partnerships, which Members would have probably noticed, some of the recent agreements which have been made.

More importantly, I think it is really about overcoming our land constraints, but thinking about how we achieve our outputs and productions in a very different manner from where it is today.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I have three supplementary questions for the Senior Minister of State. The first is, given the shift in 2030 target, to 2035, what prevents further deadline extensions if headwinds persist, particularly given the current uncertainty around the geopolitical climate as well?

The second is in relation to, especially for the food security and to help us better understand our food security situation, if Singapore's food imports were to stop completely, how many days could the country sustain itself on local production alone under these new targets?

And my third supplementary question is, given the original "30 by 30" goal was described as aspirational, could I just ask for confirmation whether these new targets are targets or aspirations?

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I thank the Member for her questions. Let me take us back one step. I will start with the third question first, on "30 by 30" and where we are in the Singapore Food Story. I think the Member will recall, it was in 2019 when we embarked on the "30 by 30" vision, where we wanted to grow a local food strategy to build food supply resilience. That was how we got Singaporeans to really think about food resilience, how we build this story and how we build this narrative of relying on local produce, helping local produce grow and support us in times of difficulty or challenges, when it comes to supply disruptions.

And certainly, even then, we had some forms of the other pillars, which is stockpiling and others. Since 2019, we have gone through several rounds of challenges and disruptions, which has taught us that we have other options too. That gave us the confidence to look at different options as Singapore learned from various things. For example, if you recall COVID-19, we had border closures, we had supply disruptions, which got us to think about supply diversification – when it came to eggs, when it came to chickens. It also got us thinking about whether we need to strengthen stockpiling. And therefore, in the last Sitting, we had Parliamentary Questions (PQs) on stockpiling, and what we do with rice and what we do with chicken.

With greater options now, I am not solely reliant on local food production only. And we also have to manage risks. So, we look at risk profiling. And therefore, in the short term, I think what is required is really to think about how we develop the Singapore Food Story in a slightly different way. So, we now set ourselves new goals, which is 20% through leafy and fruited greens, as well as the proteins for 30%, which I think we are already somewhat there for the protein side. We have about 26% out of 30%. We have about 8% out of 20% for the leafy vegetables, which we think over time, we can grow. But overall, I would say this, that our yield production has certainly shown promise.

If you look at the statistics between 2019 and 2024, the productivity of farms has increased in yield by 10% for vegetables, 17% for seafood and 50% for eggs. So, that gives very good promise in terms of whether we are able to meet the 2035 target. Certainly, it is something that we are doing more than just aspirations, we are tracking quite carefully.

As I said, we are tracking the statistics, we are putting in programmes, schemes to ensure and help our farms transform to achieve those goals.

If you think about the Singapore Food Story security plan, I think we got to then reframe the thought that is more than just local production supplying 30% of our nutritional needs, to one of four pillars of food security: local production, import diversification, stockpiling and putting in global partnerships. These, put together, give us a bit more options.

Are we changing the goalpost? I think that is one question some people ask me all the time. I think maybe it is not so much thinking in terms of goalpost, but maybe perhaps I am giving you a better goalkeeper that can perhaps save the day with more options or more plays or more tool kits in this playbook. This is one way in which we can ensure food security in Singapore in terms of need.

As for the question on how many days we can survive, I think that is something that we keep for national security. I spoke about stockpiling. It is not wise for us to reveal how long we can hold out with our stockpiles. But I would like to assure the Member that this is something that we watch very closely to ensure that in times of need, in times of security, we want to attain and ensure some sort of normalcy in the short term, such that you do not feel too much of a difference, in terms of how we practise and what we eat every day. And that is where stockpiles come in.

But over time, you will need to look at other options, whether it is local food security, or by hopefully then, we are able to find options through our diversification efforts. With that, thank you very much.

Thank you, Speaker, and thank you to the Senior Minister of State. Well, if the 2030 goal was a moonshot, then I think it does make sense to come back to earth and find spots that will work as well. On that note, I would like to ask the Senior Minister of State, can you share more about our diversification strategy and which are the non-traditional countries that we have started importing more food from?

The short answer is, that is not part of this PQ, so you may want to file another PQ. Having said that, an example would be chickens. We have seen how we have coped with the supply chain disruption during COVID-19. We have gone from just Malaysia to other countries, such as Brazil. If you think about eggs, we went all the way to Ukraine. But I think you can find the whole list of diversified sources on the Singapore Food Agency (SFA) website too.

Thank you, Speaker. I thank the Senior Minister of State for the answers. I have filed two questions for yesterday's Sitting and the Minister said that these will be addressed today. So, one question regarding how will the SFA supports and transitions farms that have invested heavily in technology to meet the original target, but now, whose produce is less aligned with the new protein and fibre targets, and what enhanced grants or offtake schemes are available to assist?

I have not really quite heard the answer to this question. I have one supplementary question to this. Will the Government consider going beyond one-off grants for capital expenditure and offer grants to help with operating expenditure?

And one supplementary question for my fibre question, has SFA considered whether narrowing the recognised fibre crop set, increases systemic risk, such as pest or climate vulnerability, and if so, what will be the mitigation measures?

Mr Speaker, thank you for allowing me to answer these questions. To the Member's questions on cost and vulnerability, I think that it is something that really depends on your mode of farming. If you are dealing with traditional land farms, of course, you have got things like soil disease, you have things like pests and other things, and farm and vegetable diseases that could spread. You have that kinds of risk.

Where you have the extreme case where you have agri-tech farms in very controlled environments, I think that also provides a different sort of environment which helps to mitigate risks. We find that some of our farmers have already moved in this space. So, as I mentioned earlier on, Greenphyto is one, but you have others like Green Harvest and Yili Farms, who have also done some transformations to put their crops in greenhouses, which reduces the effects of climate. And therefore, a number of our farms that we have funded out of our schemes – so not so much invested in; let me rephrase that, we did not invest in, but we funded through our schemes – have been many of these new climate-resilient farms too, which helps in terms of yield, because you have shielded yourself from the weather, as one example. And of course, that reduces pests as well.

On other areas in which Member spoke about, including whether we will fund operating costs, I think that is always a danger down a slippery slope. Ultimately, where we want to focus on is capability building, looking at new areas in which we can support. I will give you examples. We have a hatchery centre and a broodstock centre, which helps, for example, to get higher yields for our egg stock. We also have hatcheries that improve the quality of fingerlings, so that aquaculture can be farmed and raised with higher yields and that are stronger in terms of survivability rates.

These help farms in more game-changing ways than just helping to fund the operating costs, which may continue in current modes, current forms, which are not sustainable in the long term.

But I think what we want to do, as I shared, is build new capability, new capacities and new ways of farming, which maximises yield, which helps overcomes our constraints in land and other weaknesses that we have in terms of manpower, for example, through automation.

Today, for example, we are also encouraging some of our farms, whether it is aquaculture farms or even traditional agriculture farms, to go abroad, understand from some of these trends that can be found, agriculture or agri-tech type farming that you find overseas, whether it is in China or in other parts of Europe, and other areas in Asia, to which we can learn from too, in terms of how they have been able to scale, if they have been able to bring down cost of production. These are areas in which we want to learn from.

So, we are trying to help our farms overcome our constraints here in Singapore.

Thank you, Speaker. The Senior Minister of State spoke about enhancing demand offtake. Given that our local farms face structural disadvantages against cheaper imports, has the Ministry considered any form of minimum local sourcing requirements for major retailers and food service operators, even a modest starting quota, so as to create guaranteed demand and help farms achieve commercial viability?

This could be a 1% quota for major food importers and supermarkets like NTUC Fairprice and Sheng Siong. You can call it "1 by 30", if you would like.

Speaker, I think as a principle, we go with free market principles. Ultimately, I do not think it is in the interest of consumers or the Government to fund or subsidise food products, just as we do not do it for energy costs nor petrol.

What we really want is to help our local farmers connect them through organisations such as Singapore Agro-Food Enterprises Federation Limited. We are working very hard to connect them with many of our retailers, hoteliers, restaurant caterers – and many today are already supporting our local farms.

As an example, while Greenphyto was just launched last month, a year ago, they have already started to reach out and they are already selling to about 75 retailers here in Singapore.

I spoke about Kok Fah Technology Farm, I spoke about Green Harvest, traditional farms, new farms. I think what is key is really to be competitive with the market to provide an offering that Singaporeans would consider. I know supermarkets such as Fairprice, for example, tell me they have got a whole section dedicated just for local produce.

We can encourage Singaporeans to support. I think ultimately it is also encouraging and building awareness with our consumers that local farm produce is fresher. Today, most of them are pesticide free. So, we give you slightly different offerings for a slightly different premium. But I think for things like vegetables, even bean sprouts, the reason why they have a pretty good hold on the market is because consumers also want freshness and there is a segment of market that wish for that.

We hope that with helping our businesses build new capabilities, improve yields, lower their cost of production, we hope that in the long term that helps them be more competitive in the market. I hope that our consumers will also be able to discern the advantages of supporting local and buying local.

On our part, whether it is through procurement, whether it is through encouraging retailers, hoteliers, I think we will continue to do our part to encourage them to buy local produce, so that we can support local farmers. It is in our interest, on the record, to ensure that our local farms, our local producers thrive, progress and play a big part in our Singapore Food Story 2.