February 8, 2008
Singapore diversifies meat import sources to keep inflation in check
Singapore is looking to diversify its meat sources, importing more meats from major producers such as Brazil and moving away from its traditional suppliers in a bid to keep inflation in check.
The country's Food Consumer Price Index rose 2.9 percent last year, compared to China's 12.3 percent and Hong Kong's 4.5 percent. Despite its relatively low impact, the government is concerned about rising prices in food and most other items in the country.
Singapore, which has no pig or beef production facilities of its own, imports most of its chicken and fish.
As feed prices rose and meat prices across many countries soared, the nation-state is seeking to diversify the countries it sources its meat from so as to get better prices.
Malaysia, its northern neighbour, once supplied most of the country's meats. No longer Brazil, which in year 2000 supplied just a fifth of the imported chickens in the country, now supplies nearly 50 percent, whereas Malaysia's share of the market retreated from 46 percent to 39 percent.
Brazil also accounts for half the beef imported into the country while Australia and China each supply 28 percent of Singapore's imported pork market.
Singapore's Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) is currently considering applications from slaughterhouses to export pork from Chile and the Philippines to Singapore.
Recent outbreaks of bird flu have prompted AVA to look further afield for food supplies, AVA spokesman Goh Shih Yong told The Straits Times. Singapore banned chicken from Thailand and China in 2006 due to bird flu.
Diversification of meat sources also helped keep inflation in check, Goh said. If Singapore had not turned to Brazil for its chicken, supply shortages would have driven up prices, he added.
Taiwan was also recently approved to export ducks to the country a year after a bird flu case in the Malaysian state of Perak cut off almost all the duck supply to Singapore.
Due to its high safety requirements, approval from Singapore's food authorities is seen as an endorsement that would help boost meat exports to other countries. Singaporean officials were in the Philippines to inspect poultry and pork slaughterhouses in late January. The country failed tests by inspection authorities last year.
Meanwhile, Singapore chicken imports were seen to have stabilised whereas pork and beef imports continued to grow strongly.
Import of chicken, the most popular meat, fell 5.3 percent to 143,000 tonnes from year 2000 to 2006.
Chilled and frozen pork imports, which were almost half of that of chicken imports, rose 22 percent during the six year period from 2000 to 2006 to 89,000 tonnes.
Beef imports, which accounted for the smallest volume of the three meats, rose the most, jumping 71.4 percent from 14,000 tonnes to 24,000 tonnes during the six-year period.
|
Food CPI |
|
|
|
2007 (Percent change from 2006) |
|
|
0.30 |
|
|
2.40 |
|
|
2.40 |
|
|
2.90 |
|
|
2.90 |
|
|
3.10 |
|
EU |
3.50 |
|
US |
4.00 |
|
|
4.10 |
|
|
4.50 |
|
|
6.80 |
|
|
11.20 |
|
|
12.30 |
|
|
11.40 |
|
Source: Australia Bureau of Statistics
|
Total chicken import for 2005: 151,000 tonnes
Total chicken import for 2006: 143,000 tonnes
Source: Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority
Total pork import for 2005: 73,000 tonnes
Total pork import for 2006: 89,000 tonnes
Source: Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority
Total beef import for 2005: 14,000 tonnes
Total beef import for 2006: 24,000 tonnes
Source: Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority
