Some 7,000 participants attended the SIAW from 30 Oct – 2 Nov 2023. The series of events put the spotlight on sustainable food production in Asia and brought together the world’s leading food producers, agri-businesses, entrepreneurs, investors, research institutions and policymakers, to share best practices, showcase the latest technologies and create business opportunities. Here’s a look at what went down at SIAW 2023!
1. Facilitating food innovations while ensuring food safety
Held since 2019, SFA’s Roundtable for Novel Food Regulations has brought together key global stakeholders from the industry, research community, and food safety regulators to continue conversations that are important for ensuring the safety of novel food. Over 250 participants were involved in conversations that took place on 30 Oct 2023.
Experts spoke on risk assessments of various types of novel food, while participants shared ideas on how stakeholders can work together to develop standards in cell-cultivated meat and seafood, food ingredients from precision fermentation, and microbial proteins.
Participants also discussed and identified areas for further collaboration, including the harmonisation of regulatory frameworks, standards setting, and information sharing. These discussions contribute towards facilitating novel food innovations while ensuring its safety for consumers.
Separately at the Global Agri-Food Scientific Symposium held on 1 Nov 2023, novel food technologies were shown to have potential to contribute towards sustainability and nutrition. From genetic advancements to precision farming techniques, these innovations are boosting efficiency, reducing resource inputs while minimising their impact on the environment.
2. Creating an enabling environment for agri-food research and innovation
A supportive ecosystem is critical to facilitating innovation. SFA’s Singapore Food Story R&D programme is a key instrument in Singapore’s efforts to support agri-food innovation, and more than $300 million under the programme has already been committed to fund projects that address key challenges of our agri-food industry, including in urban agriculture and aquaculture practices, future foods, and food safety. Several grant calls under this programme were announced at SIAW 2023:
i) Seed Grant: Researchers, technology providers and potential adopters are encouraged to co-develop innovative solutions for aquaculture, sustainable urban agriculture, future foods, food safety domains.
ii) Research and Translation Grant: Solutions capable of enhancing the productivity of local food producers beyond the limits of current best-in-class technologies are sought.
iii) Future Foods Grant: Researchers, technology providers and potential adopters can tap on this to improve the process development and better enable the future manufacturing of alternative proteins.
More details on the above grant calls may be accessed at this link.
Other notable developments include (i) the signing of an MOU on 1 Nov 2023 between SFA, National University of Singapore (NUS), Economic Development Board and Syngenta to collaborate on R&D to breed vegetables varieties that can help farms boost productivity and withstand the effects of climate change; and (ii) SFA and Temasek Foundation co-presenting the Food Grand Challenge as part of The Liveability Challenge in 2024 - a global crowdsourcing platform to support commercialisation of innovative, sustainable solutions.
3. Continuing efforts to uplift the aquaculture sector
To uplift the aquaculture sector, two sub-committees consisting of key stakeholders from government agencies, nature groups, academia, and the industry was established to co-develop the Singapore Aquaculture Plan (SAP). This was announced by Dr Koh Poh Koon, Senior Minister of State for Sustainability and the Environment, in his opening speech at the Global Agri-food Scientific Symposium on 1 Nov 2023.
The sub-committees will help foster collective visioning and flesh out our shared vision with actionable outcomes for the SAP. For instance, they will look into sites suitable for sustainable and productive fish farming, research opportunities, as well as demand off-take to make the aquaculture industry more environmentally sustainable and economically viable.
In addition, NUS, SFA and Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory (TLL) signed the AquaPolis[1] Agreement to formalise the structure of the AquaPolis Board – that they earlier set up in October – to operationalise and set strategic directions for the AquaPolis R&D Programme.
The Board will be co-chaired by Professor Liu Bin, Deputy President of NUS, and Mr Peter Ho, Co-founder of Hope Technik. They will be joined by industry members and representatives from the academia and government agencies. With the signing of the AquaPolis Agreement, we can look forward to innovative and sustainable solutions that will be developed in the coming years.
4. Lim Chu Kang Master Plan to feed our food future
The featuring of exhibits from the Lim Chu Kang Master Plan (LCKMP) was a key highlight at the Agri-Food Tech Expo Asia (AFTEA) held on 31 Oct to 2 Nov 2023. The LCKMP is the cornerstone of SFA’s Grow Local strategy and takes into consideration feedback from the industry and stakeholders.
Attendees were able to experience the vision for LCK as Singapore’s flagship agri-food production hub of the future, and how the area would be transformed to be highly productive, sustainable, and resource-efficient.
These include its potential farming practices and facilities, such as an innovative stacked farm concept which will optimise land use, a district cooling facility to provide cooling needs for farms and reduce energy consumption, and a centralised waste treatment facility to process farm waste collected from the district and reduce the negative impact on the environment.
Thank you to all attendees, partners and stakeholders for your steadfast support and active participation. We look forward to seeing you again at SIAW 2024!
[1] An initiative under Singapore Food Story R&D Programme 2.0, AquaPolis is an aquaculture research development programme to facilitate research and innovation in sustainable tropical aquaculture. It aims to capitalise on the technical, operational and research expertise of strategic partners to achieve translational R&D results that can improve the productivity and competitiveness of our local farms.
