Lower vegetable, seafood production from S'pore farms

Fall in 2023 output comes amid challenges during Covid-19 pandemic, cost pressures

- Cheryl Tan

Local vegetable and seafood production fell in 2023, despite an increase in the number of vegetable farms, while local egg production went up.

The Singapore Food Agency (SFA) said in its yearly food statistics report on May 20 that the industry faced challenges in building up its farms during the Covid-19 pandemic, and grappled with inflationary pressures, higher energy prices and manpower costs.

Local vegetable production accounted for 3.2 per cent of total food consumption in 2023, down from 3.9 per cent in 2022.

Seafood production fell to 7.3 per cent from 7.6 per cent in 2022, said SFA.

The lower local vegetable production is in spite of an increase in the number of farms - 115 vegetable farms in Singapore in 2023, up from III in 2022, according to SFA's food statistics report.

The number of sea-based seafood farms fell from 109 in 2022 to 98 in 2023, whereas the number of land-based seafood farms rose from 27 in 2022 to 33 in 2023.

The fall in local production comes amid reports of other headwinds confronting the local farming sector.

Vegetable farm VertiVegies had scrapped plans to build what would have been one of Singapore's largest indoor farms in Lim Chu Kang, citing issues with its joint venture partner, Chinese farming company SananBio, which supplies the farm with its production hardware.