Food supply chain in Singapore & worldwide

With the world population expected to grow to over 10 billion by the end of the century, stakeholders (Producers, Processors, Distributors, Consumers) all round the world are finding sustainable ways to meet the consumption demands of the human population in years to come. Some of the local food wholesalers and distributors such as Oregano Trading & SSKim had took noticed of this trend and are finding ways to achieve food sustainability through their work processes.

Adding to the woes of a sustained global food supply chain are climate changes, limited farming lands due to urbanisation, and lack of capital investments & innovations especially in under-developed & developing countries.

It remains to be seen if governments and regulators all round the world are able to achieve desirable outcomes for all stakeholders. Issues such as supply chain efficiency, market volatility (trade curbs), innovation to support growth, energy efficiency, waste management, addressing new consumption trends, demands of diverse food origins & food source sustainability are factors affecting all stakeholders.

Governments and regulators are constantly working with leading global producers to address the issues faced, and tackling from macro-level to micro-level food trends among the communities concurrently.

There’s a need for globalising food markets and systems, and to have much collaborations between stakeholders to meet the demand of a growing and more affluent world population.

The multi channels that food products are being distributed is also on an unprecedented global scale, making the participation of all stakeholders all the more crucial to ensure and improve current food supply chain systems more sustainable.

One positive trend is that new relationships are constantly forged between public agencies and the commercial sector to bring value, and to achieve positive outcomes for all in the food supply chain.

Being a metropolis, Singapore’s agriculture resources are finite.

We are largely dependent on imports to fulfill our population needs, and we will see an ascending trend to our consumption needs due to higher GDP, as well as the rising influx of visitors to this metropolitan city for these factors:

· Increasing frequency of flights from surrounding / nearby countries

· Two integrated resorts in Singapore

· Increasing number of meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions

· New tourist attractions

As these factors contribute to the ever-rising demand in quality food as in any affluent cities, we are one of the largest importers of agricultural products and processed food.

The organic food market in Singapore is small with rice being the biggest contributor of the market. Singapore also imports its organic food.

The following consumer trends should also be taken into consideration:

· Singaporeans are leading hectic lifestyles and have no time to prepare their meals so they would rather eat out

· Western influence has had households opt for foods common to the west, and are gradually more receptive of these instead of the usual traditional food

· Due to high household incomes, Singaporeans are able to purchase food and beverages to the basis of a want rather than a need

For food distributor Singapore such as Oregano Trading Pte Ltd, they have done a rebranding exercise to communicate their brand values and CSR through various communication channels to create awareness and advocate consumers on this global phenomenon.

The catering industry has also been on an upward trend as based on the statistics mentioned in this article. And for catering companies such as Lexin Catering Pte Ltd where they have one of the best catering tingkat menu Singapore, it is paramount for her to reduce food wastage through proper education of her consumers on the appropriate food quantity to order.