Scouring the world for food, so prices stay stable
Lee Siew Hua, Straits Times 24 Nov 07;
How does Singapore scour the world for food? How does the transfer of farming techniques by Singapore, a non-agricultural country, help in its quest for food?
And why is food a political hot potato everywhere?
MADAM Halimah Yacob's mother cooked chapati for her family when a global rice shortage in the 1960s prompted her to switch from rice to the wheat-based Indian flat bread.
Those were the days when the quixotic Eat More Wheat campaign appeared in 1967. However, Singaporeans pined for rice.
Today, the MP for Jurong GRC, who is a mother of five, still believes alternative food choices can mitigate rising food prices.
However, she acknowledges that there are limits to substitution, saying it is more easily achieved when prices go up selectively, instead of across the board.
The Agri-food and Veterinary Authority (AVA), which sees to it that Singapore enjoys a resilient and safe food supply, also hopes that Singaporeans will switch more easily, from chilled to cheaper frozen pork, for example.
But its greater focus is on diversifying food supplies, which will keep prices more stable if disruptions occur.
Some new sources are unusual. The AVA recently approved the import of frozen fish and oysters from Namibia, an African country with a long Atlantic coast.
After the avian flu squeezed supplies of the well-loved egg, AVA and traders looked farther afield.
Now, fragile eggs make the journey from the US and Japan to our dining tables.
How does Singapore scour the world for food? How does the transfer of farming techniques by Singapore, a non-agricultural country, help in its quest for food?
And why is food a political hot potato everywhere?
Insight investigates.
Our chicken comes from Brazil?
The story of S'pore's search for new food sources
Straits Times 24 Nov 07;
Food prices are rising, and the drive to diversify Singapore's food supply is heating up. Lee Siew Hua tracks the national quest for enough food at stable prices - a theme of political importance anywhere
ALERT: Poultry scarcity.
But some determined Singaporeans heard about Perak's disease-free duck farms, and raced off on an overnight trip to hunt down new supplies to ease the shortage.
Success! That search team of about 30 traders and officials returned home delighted with a new poultry source - a pocket-sized but prized zone of safe birds.
Meat merchant Jack Koh, president of the Meat Traders Association, recalls the high purpose of that lightning mission in the sombre avian-flu days of December 2004.
'The action was very swift,' says Mr Koh. 'The Malaysians also pointed us to more duck farms in the south.
'The disruption was not so bad after that.'
That trip was made possible by the nation's official pantry, the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority or AVA. Set up in 2000, the busy, fleet-footed agency sees to it that Singapore enjoys a resilient supply of safe food.
Today, there is a heightened push by the authorities to diversify food supplies and keep prices stable, also deemed a wise political move.
So Singapore's traders, supermarkets and the AVA scour continents for non-traditional sources of food for the national table.
It is a fascinating basket.
A sampling reveals: Distant Brazil supplies 50 per cent of the frozen chicken parts eaten here.
NTUC FairPrice is eyeing Namibian seafood. It has aisles devoted to Korean and Australian edibles, and its globetrotting team of 30 buyers has filled shelves with Hungarian frozen vegetables and Chilean wine.
Last month, importer Kai Young Huat added American white eggs to its product line that includes contemporary liquid eggs and traditional salted eggs.
Diversifying is prudent. Singapore is greatly dependent on outsiders, importing 90 per cent of what we eat. And the serial crises of Sars and avian flu, plus the gathering forces of climate change, dramatise how speedily food stocks can be threatened.
'We don't put all our eggs in one basket,' says Mr Gan Yee Chin, deputy chairman of the Han's chain of cafes and bakeries. 'We look for new suppliers.'
If one fails, there must be alternative suppliers.
The watchfulness over food supplies and prices is widespread and historical.
Bread riots
FOOD has turned the tables on governments. The poor in France rioted over the price of bread in 1789, creating one more inexorable spark for the French Revolution.
High inflation was one trigger for the 1989 Tiananmen protests in China.
Though these are extreme episodes, no government can stay cavalier about food costs.
Citizens expect their leaders to provide adequate food at affordable prices, says Singapore Management University law professor Eugene Tan. 'Otherwise, it strikes at the very heart of the government's legitimacy.'
He adds: 'We are not talking about luxury items or Internet access, but daily sustenance.''
This year, the scale is now global and high food costs stir discontent in industrialised and poor countries alike.
In Italy, consumer groups called for a symbolic pasta strike, asking shoppers not to buy the beloved staple for a day. Americans are aghast when they see supermarket price labels, a reaction called 'sticker shock'. Grocery prices in the US are anticipated to top 7.5 per cent this year - the highest annual hike since 1980.
In poorer places, unrest has been reported in Yemen, Mexico, China and elsewhere.
In Singapore, Madam Halimah Yacob, MP for Jurong GRC, says: 'Costs are biting into the pocket of the average Singaporean household.'
She raised the issue of food costs in Parliament last Monday and continues to receive feedback, hearing from one housewife that onions are priced as high as $11 for a big bag, compared to $6 not too long ago.
Her concern is for lower-income families, who spend almost one-third of their income on food - 29.6 per cent. In contrast, middle-income families spend 24.1 per cent while the rich set aside 17 per cent.
The prospect of two Singapores is ever-present. 'There is growth and job creation in Singapore,'' Madam Halimah observes. 'But we have to make sure there is much more even distribution of growth.''
The drive to uncover diverse supplies far and near occurs amid this lingering unsettledness over food expenses and income inequity.
Now stir in a perfect global storm of harvest-busting bad weather, oil price surges, big demand for biofuels, the hungry quest of booming China and India for more food. The result is supply disruptions, and in turn food bills escalate.
Food vulnerability
IN THIS climate, Trade and Industry Minister Lim Hng Kiang stood up in Parliament this month to highlight a line of action:
'Diversifying our food sources is one way we can reduce our vulnerability to such supply disruptions and maintain more stable food supplies.
'AVA will continue to step up efforts to this end.''
Besides diversifying, the AVA boosts food stocks by selling Singapore as a food trading hub. This has attractive 'spin-offs', says AVA spokesman Goh Shih Yong, since it brings in more food.
The nation also transfers farm technology to pull in food supplies. It is this idea of non-agricultural Singapore showing farmers how to farm better that is a delicious irony - plus economically and politically logical, as it turns out.
Dr Patrick Loh, an AVA agri-business adviser, explains: 'Singapore's strength is its trained talent. Although we don't have a big playing field, we know how to harness the vast hinterland surrounding us.''
Beginning in 2001, he has been involved in the AVA's technology transfer to land-rich Riau province in Indonesia.
One new aspect is the use of 'post-harvest' methods, which include a reliance on cool packing houses at the Indonesian source, quick shipment of perhaps 20 hours in chiller-fitted boats - and refrigerated trucks waiting in Singapore to rush the greens to supermarkets.
Both sides win. Singapore helps scale up the once-kampung-style farms to commercial magnitude.
The farms make money by selling safe, quality leafy vegetables - such as bai cai and cai xin - to discerning Singaporeans, and also to Jakarta.
NTUC FairPrice retails some Riau produce under its ValueFresh label.
Dr Loh, also a SIM University bio-entrepreneurship professor and a UK-trained scientist who says he has cloned bananas for his Malaysian plantation, declares himself 'passionate' about stocking Singapore's kitchens.
'We need strategic collaborations to keep prices down, and ensure a resilient food supply,' he says.
Meanwhile, AVA's story of diversification is picked up relentlessly all over Singapore by traders, restaurants and supermarkets.
Mr Koh, the meat trader, visited Canada to source for frozen pork last year. Soon, he and fellow traders will visit East Malaysia and a Philippine island free of foot-and-mouth disease for pork supplies.
These new places will supplement Singapore's pork imports from Indonesia, Australia, Brazil, China and some European countries.
Australia's shifting fortunes as our chilled-pork supplier is a cautionary tale.
After nipah virus struck Malaysian pig farms in 1999, he recalls, Australian farms were sourced. Sales then climbed from near-zero to $120 million a year.
'But Australian prices are now high because drought has affected crops used as feed,' he says. Feed accounts for 60 per cent of production costs.
The Australian dollar has also appreciated against the Singapore currency, further skewing prices. Australian farmers are 'committed' and have tried to absorb costs for a year, he says, but some are now leaving the business.
At home, the food trade faces high-priced rents, utilities and logistics.
Amid this wave of price increases, the food industry has one mantra: diversify, diversify, diversify.
For NTUC FairPrice, it signs up for AVA's overseas missions and plans its own buying trips.
More choices
TO DIVERSIFY is a natural route for the 220-outlet chain, and the strategy has intensified in the last 10 to 15 years.
It is born of necessity, and customers love choices.
Managing director Seah Kian Peng says FairPrice has a social role to deliver value for money, and keep prices low.
In 1973, the labour movement started the cooperative in the tense days of roaring inflation amid a global oil crisis. The first outlet, in Toa Payoh, was named NTUC Welcome.
Mr Seah says: 'We have to be convinced that price increases are justified by suppliers. We try to push price increases as late as possible.'
Today, Singapore's food foray are opportunity-filled, but the limits are also big.
Most potentially disruptive factors - disease or terrorism - are outside the nation's control. Singapore can only manage risks, for instance, with emergency plans and supply options in stable lands.
Still, bright spots exist. A study last year on the United Kingdom's food security is not unduly pessimistic about shortages: 'The ability of competitive well-functioning markets, domestically and internationally, to adapt to shocks should not be understated.'
And Singapore is, so far, nimble in skirting food crises.
RELATED ARTICLES
Why your chicken rice just got pricier
Elysa Chan, The Electric New Paper 13 Nov 07;
Food crisis from climate change: scientists warn
Scientists warn of agrarian crisis from climate change
Anil PennaThu, Yahoo News 22 Nov 07;
Unprecedented food shortage forecast as oil runs out: scientist
Apocalyptic vision of a post-fossil fuel world
Paul Eccleston, Telegraph 22 Nov 07;
Global warming may cut crop yields in Asia: report
Business Times 20 Nov 07;
Climate, demographics to keep food costs high: UN World Food Programme
Nick Tattersall, Reuters 16 Nov 07;
Paying Farmers to Protect the Planet is Future - UN
PlanetArk 16 Nov 07;
Sowing the seeds of farming's future: security of food supplies should not be taken for granted
Les Firbank, BBC News 13 Nov 07;
