Speech by Minister Gan Kim Yong at the Ground-Breaking Ceremony of SATS Food Hub

Distinguished guests,

Ladies and gentlemen,

Opening

1. Good afternoon.  It is my pleasure to join you here this afternoon for the ground-breaking ceremony of SATS Food Hub (SFH) in Jurong Innovation District (JID).

2. As a small and resource-constrained nation, food security and resilience have always been Singapore’s priority. This has been brought into sharper focus in the face of global challenges, such as climate change, supply chain constraints, and more recently, the outbreak of COVID-19 and the Ukraine war.

3. But Singapore is not without agency. Advances in technology and innovation will transform the way food is grown and produced, especially for a country like Singapore that faces many natural constraints. This will be key to helping us ‘grow more with less’ in a sustainable manner, and attain our “30 by 30” vision.

4. To achieve our ambition, JTC has worked with SATS to anchor a $150 million food hub in JID, home to the entire value chain of manufacturing activities from prototyping and test-bedding, to production and distribution. Most people think of manufacturing as producing nuts and bolts, or chips and circuit boards. But in fact, Singapore also has a large and thriving food manufacturing industry, with more than 1,000 firms employing more than 50,000 workers. These include larger players like Meiji and Yeo’s which are now household names, but also smaller companies working in exciting new growth areas like alternative proteins.

5. SATS is the first food industry player to join the ecosystem we are building at JID. Its entry will strengthen JID’s position as an advanced manufacturing hub, and create more opportunities for collaborative partnerships to scale-up the adoption of advanced manufacturing solutions in Singapore and the region. It will also strengthen our food manufacturing ecosystem, complementing the many research institutes, agri-food tech startups, accelerators, and trade associations, working together towards our vision of becoming a leading food and nutrition hub in Asia.

Leading food solutions company with the scale and capabilities to help build food resilience for Singapore

6. As Asia’s leading provider of food solutions and gateway services, SATS has been at the frontier of innovative food technologies and solutions to build food resilience for Singapore.

7. SATS also demonstrated that even as we grapple with the challenges in our operating environment, there are exciting opportunities that come our way, and we can capture them with the right infrastructure and technology in place.

a. To foster a collaborative culture, FoodFlix, SATS’ venture arm’s brand accelerator programme, initiated collaborations with local hawkers, F&B brands, and startups to help them internationalise. FoodFlix helps to connect enterprises with the resources and know-how to enter new markets and retail channels. This is an encouraging move taken by SATS to generate collective value and help enterprises thrive in today’s F&B landscape.

b. SATS is also actively exploring initiatives to improve waste management and reduction. For example, together with the institutes of higher learning, SATS is trialing a self-sufficient energy waste conversion system to produce electricity and heat which can be used in its operations. SATS is also assessing the adoption of high-frequency wave technology to boost food preparation processes for higher output.

8. The partnership will equip brands with the opportunity and resources to experiment, adapt, and scale while at the same time strengthen our food resilience through innovative and sustainable food solutions and collaborations, enabling more people to eat well and eat sustainably.

Fostering culinary and business model innovation through collaborations

9. SATS takes these initiatives further with the SFH, through leveraging SATS’ extensive technology and innovation capabilities to enable an ecosystem approach to build agility and resilience in food production. When completed, SFH will house facilities across the value chain, from food manufacturing to production kitchens, innovation lab, and warehousing and logistics centre. Advanced food manufacturing with automation and Internet of Things (IoT) capabilities will also be deployed to improve operational efficiency. The SFH will create new job opportunities in food engineering, product development, business development and supply chain operations; and also enable enterprises along the value chain to come together to test-bed new products and services, and commercialise viable food solutions in new markets.

10. With efforts like SATS’ and other partners in our food industry ecosystem, we will be able to enhance our food security, capture our share of the growing market in Asia, and meet the growing health and nutrition needs.

Conclusion

11. Let me conclude by extending my heartiest congratulations to SATS for the launch of the SFH. I look forward to the completion of the food hub, and wish SATS every success in your journey ahead.

12. Thank you.