September 28, 2010

 

Singapore turns to China for food security

Singapore is eyeing a gigantic farming project in northeast China that could help the small, densely populated city-state diversify its food supplies.

 

The country is also offering export opportunities for its expertise in food safety and investment opportunities for its businesses.

 

One company, Singapore Food Industries, has already announced a joint venture to set up an integrated pig farm as part of the project. Another, Singbridge International Singapore, is studying the commercial feasibility of a joint venture in developing a giant food production zone jointly with the Jilin municipality.

 

The China Jilin (Singapore) Modern Agricultural Cooperation Food Zone is an ambitious project covering 1,450 square kilometres, twice the area of Singapore. It is envisioned as a major food production centre integrating farming with food processing, storage and logistics.

 

"There are similar large-scale projects now being worked on around the world, but this is a world's first in terms of joint regional private-public sector partnership," said Veiverne Yuen, associate director in the Food & Agribusiness Research and Advisory Asia team at Rabobank. Yuen was project manager of a conceptual feasibility study conducted by Rabobank for the food zone.

 

In May, the Jilin Provincial People's Government announced the inauguration of the food zone, which it described as a "major collaborative project" to improve food security and food safety for both Singapore and China.

 

For a start, the project will explore the feasibility of setting up a disease-free zone for producing pork for export to Singapore, said Goh Shih Yong, spokesman for Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority (AVA) the Singapore food regulator.

 

Singapore currently imports more than 90% of the food it needs to feed its five million residents and the more than nine million tourists who visit every year.

 

According to AVA data, Singapore imports 96,200 tonnes of pork a year, mainly from Brazil, Indonesia and Australia. It also relies heavily on Australia for mutton and beef. It is looking to the Chinese venture both to diversify its food supplies and to increase their security.

 

The pig farm is a joint venture of Singapore Food Industries; the DaChan Food (Asia) Co., based in Hong Kong, one of the largest chicken meat products and feed suppliers in China; and the state-owned Jilin China-Singapore Food Zone Development Construction Investment Co., or JCS.

 

Ground-breaking started this month, and when the farm is completed over the next six years, it is intended to incorporate a supply sequence starting with feed production and breeding and running through slaughtering and meat processing, that could process a million pigs each year.

 

Singapore has always tried to diversify its food sources as part of a strategy to stabilise local food prices.

 

It intensified those diversification efforts in 2008, establishing new sources for pork in a number of countries, including Poland, Mexico and Spain. It also brought in live fish from Namibia and processed poultry from Turkey, China and other countries.