Local production of veggies, seafood fell in 2024, but egg yields grew: Report

SINGAPORE - Local production of vegetables and seafood declined further in 2024, hindering the Republic’s initial target of producing 30 per cent of its nutritional needs by 2030.

The 2024 figures come after a series of disruptions to the local farming sector, with some high-profile players closing down, and others delaying plans or scaling back production over the past couple of years.

Overall, local food production in 2024 made up less than 10 per cent of total demand, with vegetable farming and aquaculture production declining since 2021.

In 2024, 3 per cent of vegetables consumed were grown locally, down from 3.2 per cent in 2023. Local seafood production dropped from 7.3 per cent in 2023 to 6.1 per cent in 2024, according to the 2024 Singapore Food Statistics report released on June 5.

The same year, there were 153 farms on land – most of which grow vegetables – down from 156 the year before. The 72 sea-based farms were also down from 98 the previous year.

The country’s three egg farms, however, bucked the trend. These high-tech facilities produced 34.4 per cent of all eggs consumed in 2024, up from 31.9 per cent.

Farming sector shake-up

Singapore has three main pillars under its food security strategy.

The main one is diversifying food sources by importing from 187 countries and regions, followed by stockpiling rice in the event of emergencies.

But local production is still considered critical for the country’s food security, as it ensures the Republic has access to key food types, such as seafood, eggs and vegetables, even during supply chain disruptions.

Since 2019, Singapore has had an aspirational target to locally produce 30 per cent of its nutritional needs by 2030, but it was revealed in Parliament in March that the 30-by-30 target is being reviewed.

In the report, the Singapore Food Agency (SFA) said the lower production for seafood was “partly due to the restructuring of a few fish farms in Singapore”.

The Straits Times had previously reported that a quarter of sea-based farms exited in 2024 because of the higher costs of maintaining the farms, the need to pay for the use of sea spaces under a recent scheme, and changing environmental conditions that could impact yield, among other reasons.

Farmers also chose to retire, with some taking up a financial support package of up to $100,000 from SFA to wind up operations. ST had asked how many farms have taken up this package, but SFA did not reveal the figures. 

On the drop in local production of vegetables and fish, SFA chief executive Damian Chan said on May 29 in his first interview with the media since taking on his new role in May 2024: “We’ve seen how factors like higher operating costs, especially energy costs, the weaker investment climate in high-tech farming and also the challenges which the farms face in securing (sales) have impacted them.

“While energy cost has lowered a bit since the past few years, it’s still relatively more expensive than in other countries.”

And since local produce typically costs more than imported ones, shoppers tend to opt for the more affordable leafy greens and fish, affecting demand.

As for eggs, the report said that farm upgrades and improved operations contributed to the growth of egg farms.

Review of local production target

On the review of the 30-by-30 target, Mr Chan said the goal was mooted at a time before the Covid-19 pandemic and

the Ukraine-Russia war,

which disrupted supply chains and led to an energy crisis.

“There are some things which we need to work with individually with the farms to help them. There are some things that probably need to be done more at a policy level. There are some things that need to be done at the infrastructure level and so on,” he said when asked about the progress of the review.

Mr Chan also stressed that it is productivity, not the number of farms, that is critical for Singapore’s local production to contribute to food security.

“One thing I want to stress, we don’t necessarily need more farms. But what we need is more farms that have sufficient scale to be productive, competitive and financially sustainable,” he said.

There are promising signs of this, noted the report, which said that some farms, including high-tech ones, have been yielding more produce and fish while using less space.

Vegetable farms’ annual productivity increased from 227.2 tonnes of greens per hectare in 2023 to 231.4 tonnes in 2024.

The report also hinted at some optimism that the country will pick up pace in its vegetables and seafood production, stating that “2025 and 2026 will see the set-up and ramp-up of a few large-scale indoor vertical farms that are climate-resilient, productive and competitive”.

The Straits Times understands that one of them is Artisan Green, which currently runs a small-scale vegetable-growing indoor facility in Kallang.

Its chief executive, Mr Ray Poh, told ST that the launch of its new 2ha site in Sungei Tengah, initially scheduled for 2025, has been pushed to the third quarter of 2026 due to the site’s design changes.

The site – around the size of three football fields – will have an indoor production area of 5,500 sq m and an outdoor greenhouse of 0.65ha, with a visitor centre and restaurant.

SFA’s Mr Chan said some of the upcoming farms are expansions of existing firms, and at least one of them will be “quite a large-scale facility”, without providing further details.

For seafood, SFA has said it plans to open up more aquaculture spaces in the East Johor Strait from 2026, with a target of raising local production of seafood there to up to 6,700 tonnes annually. This is nearly double the amount of seafood Singapore produced in 2024, which was 3,500 tonnes.

For farms to be profitable and sustainable, the Singapore Institute of Technology’s Associate Professor Matthew Tan said aquaculture insurance schemes, grants for climate adaptation and green financing options can help farms better weather shocks and attract investment.

“Sustainable financing models and realistic revenue projections are essential – don’t over-leverage,” added Prof Tan, who has over 20 years of experience in the agri-tech sector.

The report also touched on food safety, another area under the agency’s ambit.

It said cases of food poisoning increased in 2024, with close to 23 cases of foodborne illness for every 100,000 people, up from 21.9 cases in 2023.

More than half of the cases in 2024 involved catered food, the report said.

One food safety incident is still under investigation and was not counted in the report, SFA said.

There were several high-profile food poisoning outbreaks in 2024, including an

incident in July at the ByteDance office,

which affected 169 people.

That same month,

over 160 personnel at the Civil Defence Academy reported sick in a separate incident.

SFA then stepped up checks at catering establishments and met associations in the food sector to share key insights from the outbreaks.