Citizens’ Workgroup on Increasing Demand for Local Produce

Our Challenge

Singapore imports food from more than 170 countries and regions today. This helps us to ensure that we have a steady and sufficient supply of food for our people.

However, as we are reliant on imports for more than 90 per cent of our food, this leaves us vulnerable to external factors, such as volatilities of the global food market, the impacts of climate change, and even disease outbreaks.

How might we creatively boost the market demand for Singapore's local produce?

This was the question members of the public were tasked to address at the Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment (MSE) and the Singapore Food Agency's (SFA) Citizens' Workgroup on increasing demand for local produce.

Convened in the midst of a global pandemic, the Workgroup adapted to the challenges stemming from COVID-19. Over the course of 4 months from Jul - Oct 2020, virtual meetings were held through digital conferencing tools and collaborative platforms to discuss the issue and generate ideas, before progressing to meeting in person for prototyping and presenting their final ideas under stringent COVID-19 safe management measures.

To support the Workgroup members in their brainstorming, they were provided with the following:

• An information kit with survey findings on consumer behaviour towards local produce, as well as past and current efforts;
• Internal resource persons from MSE and SFA;
• Subject matter experts from the agri-food industry for members to tap on their expertise

Citizens' Workgroup Reports

The members of the Citizens' Workgroup have submitted their recommendations to MSE and SFA in a report.

Ms Grace Fu (Minister for Sustainability and the Environment), Dr Amy Khor (Senior Minister of State) and Mr Desmond Tan (Minister of State) met with members of the Citizens' Workgroup on 6 February 2021 to share MSE and SFA's response to their recommendations. We look forward to working with the members to co-develop and pilot their recommendations.

Download the reports

• Report by members of the Citizens' Workgroup

• MSE and SFA's response to the recommendations from Citizens' Workgroup