Food supply chain resilience: case of Singapore

Abstract

Vast majority (90%) of food requirements in Singapore are being fulfilled with imports. Thus its food supply chain is particularly vulnerable to disruptions, with incidents such as the Covid-19 pandemic highlighting the need to establish a resilient food supply chain. Singapore has a “30-by-30” plan to increase local production to 30% of its requirements by 2030. However, it is clear current efforts are not based on using multiple alternate strategies and having a customised approach for different food categories. Therefore, the purpose of the project is to, for each food category: 1) explore viable strategies; 2) assess and compare them for their ability to increase sufficiency, cost efficiency, time to implement, and operational feasibility; and 3) recommend an overall strategy and path forward. The three main categories of food discussed are grains, vegetables, and proteins. For grains, Singapore should focus on increasing stockpiles in the short term, enhancing supply chain visibility in the medium term, and work on technologies to support efforts to grow overseas in the long term. For vegetables, adjusting the composition of stockpiles and various technologies such as vertical farming and supply chain network optimisation would allow for an optimistic level of self-sufficiency in the long term. In addition, lack of price competitiveness of local produce with the increased number of import sources has to be addressed. For proteins, eggs seem to be on track for a high degree of self-sufficiency with improvements to local production alone. This can be further enhanced by decreasing consumption levels. Fish would have to rely more on increasing production, as the foreseeable capability of technology to grow locally is limited. For the remaining meat categories, alternative forms should be explored to reduce the dependence on foreign supply.