The export ban on chickens from Malaysia extends into its third month. Climate change and geopolitical developments continue to impact global food production and disrupt food supply chains.
These changes present new opportunities and challenges for farms of the future, and a look at our agricultural past offers some potentially useful ‘lessons’ that we can adapt for the uncertainties ahead. Leveraging the government’s shift to technology-augmented farm production, Koh travelled widely to study egg farming in Japan, England, Denmark and the Netherlands.
When Savewell later ran into financial difficulties, Lim and his brothers made the momentous decision to take over the management of the entire store. Separately, Prime Supermarket, another well-established local supermarket chain, can also trace its beginnings to this uncertain period in the mid-1980s.
Such experiences gave the Tans the confidence to diversify into other industries, allowing them to grow into Prime Group International , a large international company with commercial interests in real estate, hospitality, and agriculture.PGI further expanded into local fish farming in 2018, with the opening of Prime Aqua Sea Farm. Today, Prime has three coastal fish farms along the Pulau Tekong coastline.
Yet as the experience of Singapore’s farmers demonstrate, such upheavals may offer new opportunities for daring and determined Singaporeans, whether they are farmers, entrepreneurs, or policymakers.