The bright colours and smells of the Singapore Food Expo will be missed this year as the Singapore Food Manufacturers' Association (SFMA) will hold the annual event online on a smaller scale due to the coronavirus outbreak. But businesses and the public can check out the various products on a centralised portal and on Facebook live shows.

With just 52 vendors, down from the 104 vendors with 147 booths last year, the event from Oct 5 to Nov 1 will focus on helping Singaporean food manufacturers digitalise their businesses.

SFMA has partnered e-commerce website Singapore Food United to enable manufacturers to sell their products online. The website has a minimum spending of $40 for each brand and a $1.50 flat delivery charge, said SFMA.

There will also be Facebook live shows and posts where the products will be showcased by Singapore Home Cooks, an online community with more than 220,000 members. The group will host eight live shows every Wednesday and Saturday during the expo, which is the 21st edition of the annual event.

At the launch event yesterday, where Minister of State for Culture, Community and Youth as well as Trade and Industry Low Yen Ling learnt how to cook local favourite laksa, she also shared her "recipe" for business transformation. "I would like to share with you what I think are three key ingredients that are necessary for businesses to transform successfully: innovation, collaboration and digitalisation."

Ms Low emphasised the need for manufacturers to transform their businesses due to the outbreak. She cited Sin Mui Heng Food Industries as a firm that has successfully pivoted towards e-commerce. "At the onset of Covid-19, the company saw that their primary stream of income could come from direct consumer sales. They were quick to start marketing their products aggressively on social media platforms and online stores, such as Facebook, Instagram and Shopee. These moves enabled Sin Mui Heng to build a loyal customer base online, and grow its Internet sales by more than 37 times."

SFMA president David Tan said: "Most of our members are still engaging their customers directly. The Singapore Food United e-commerce platform will help them move online with a reduced delivery charge."

Last year's Singapore Food Expo drew a crowd of 450,000 people.