29/09/2021
Singapore’s huge dependency — 90 per cent — on imports for its food supply puts it at the mercy of external forces in the exporting countries, most of which are beyond the Republic’s control.
So it is laudable and indeed even overdue, that the government would want to reduce the country’s vulnerability and achieve greater stability in its supply of food as part of food security.
According to the Agriculture and Veterinary Authority (AVA), Singapore imports food from some 170 countries.
They are geographically spread out as part of its resilience strategy and includes thousands of different food items.
The consumption of 10 of the most common food items (leafy vegetables, other vegetables, fruits, chicken, pork, fish, other seafood, mutton, duck and beef) amounted to 1.36 million tonnes in 2017.
A 10 per cent self-production of all these items would mean producing 147,300 tonnes. The current targets for self-production of eggs, fish and leafy vegetables are 33 per cent, 15 per cent and 10 per cent respectively.
