The food industry can thrive in land-scarce Singapore, looking at other small but successful food exporting countries, says RSIS’ Paul Teng.

Singapore has gone through such spectacular changes in its bicentennial history that today’s visitors to the country may be forgiven if they think it has always been a glitzy concrete shopping paradise and financial hub.

It was only at the turn of the 19th century that Singapore grew, exported and traded in gambier, nutmeg, cinnamon, among other produce. And until the 1970s, orchards, chicken and pig farms thrived on the main island.

As Singapore accelerated its transformation from Third World to First post-independence, so too did its policy makers confront difficult choices on the use of limited land.

… Paul Teng is Adjunct Senior Fellow (Food Security) in the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and concurrently Honorary Senior Fellow, Southeast Asian Regional Centre for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA/SEAMEO) in the Philippines.