Organisation:
New Zealand’s Centres of Asia Pacific Excellence (CAPE)
Resource Link:
Published in 2022, Link
My Key Takeaways
Watermelon, Sug..Strawberries, or even Bok Choy and Kai Lan …but what about the role of seeds in the agrifood value chain in Singapore (SG) and Southeast Asia (SEA)?
Although commissioned by New Zealand’s Centres of Asia-Pacific Excellence for their companies, the takeaways from this report could also help global agrifood players’ expansion plans in the region.
Singapore, the Asian business and innovation hub we know today, was historically a farming nation!
Singapore’s retail epicentre Orchard Road used to be covered in, well, food orchards. 9% of the population used to rely on agriculture for income.
As part of the “30 by 30” agrifood vision, the Singapore government aims to produce 30% of the city-state’s own food by 2030, and announced recently S$60M of public R&D funds to support the sector.
Where’s Singapore’s Food Coming From Today? (Pg 3)
90% of the country’s food is currently imported, with the majority from France, Malaysia, China, UK and Indonesia.
In 2019, local production was just 4%!
➡️ Page 22 shares an overview of Singapore’s horticultural production. A large majority is in leafy and fruit vegetables (119 non-hydroponics, 146 hydroponics companies).
What Crops to Choose for your Business Case?
➡️ Pg 16 analyses yield / ton of a chosen crop matched with its revenue potential.
For example, beans and legumes have lower yield of 20-30 tonnes/ tonne of seed but represent revenues of NZD 800/tonne of crop grown.
Lettuce and chinese cabbage have high yields of 46-49k tonnes/tonne of seed but only revenues of NZD 0.5 /ton of crop.
Seeding New Growth Opportunities
➡️ Table 3 scans global seed production volumes of global companies from 2014 – 2020.
In 2020, the global sector was relatively fragmented with 22 companies generating ~ 70% of total seed sales.
However, if we analyse each seed segment, the top 3 companies for maize, soybean & cotton seed sales accounted for ~ 53-66% of global sales.
For vegetable seeds, the above figure is much lower at 29% – potential further consolidation?
Singapore’s Seed Market
To achieve 30 by 30, Singapore could need 270 tonnes of seeds annually from high value seed crops like radishes, carrots and onion (including spring onion).
Singapore’s domestic seed production volumes have also grown steadily since 2012. See Pg 7 for Singapore’s seed imports and export volumes.
➡️ Need distribution? There are ~25 seed suppliers in Singapore (e.g. Urban Harvest, SG Horti Flora) (Pg 21).
Business Development Opportunities?
➡️ See Pg 22 and 23 for numbers of horticultural companies across different categories, and a list of horticultural farms in Singapore.
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To meet 30 by 30 goals, Singapore and many Southeast Asian countries need to expand beyond leafy greens to nutritionally denser and high yielding vegetable crops like roots or vining plants.
For example, Bayer and Singapore’s Temasek launched Unfold, a new venture designing seed verified for vertical farming applications.
Might there also be co-innovation opportunities to optimise other horticultural varieties for vertical farming, smaller urban spaces, higher yields and lower carbon footprint?
About Zhilin SIM
Having worked and lived in Singapore, the Nordics, China, Spain, UK, I’m now based in Paris.
I’m fluent in English, French and Mandarin, and I’m learning Arabic because it’s a beautiful and fascinating language.
My team creates and supports one-many initiatives connecting corporate and startup ecosystems in Europe to business and innovation opportunities in Singapore and Southeast Asia.
I’m passionate about horticulture, watercolour, startups/tech as well as French cuisine, Peranakan kueh techniques and other global cuisines.
Feel free to connect with me if you think my network in Europe and Asia could be of benefit to your business and innovation activities.
