DPM Heng Swee Keat at the Opening of the Nurasa Food Tech Innovation Centre

Mr Pradeep Pant, Chairman, Nurasa
Ms Guo Xiu Ling, Chief Executive Officer, Nurasa,
Mr Frederick Chew, Chief Executive Officer, A*STAR,
Ladies and gentlemen,

Good morning. 

I am delighted to join you today to open Nurasa’s new Food Tech Innovation Centre. Nurasa was set up by Temasek in 2021 to transform food systems, in Singapore and across Asia, to be more sustainable, accessible and innovative. Xiu Ling spoke about leveraging partnerships and innovation to achieve this mission. Opening this Food Tech Innovation Centre marks an important milestone in Nurasa’s journey, as well as Singapore’s food journey. So let me first congratulate Nurasa and Temasek, as well as A*STAR and all other partners for collaborating to advance progress in this important area.

When speaking about food security, we are often reminded of the Malthusian theory of population. In the 18th century, English economist Thomas Malthus postulated that population growth would outstrip the growth of food supply, resulting in famine, war, and eventually poverty and depopulation. Thankfully, this dismal scenario has been mostly disproven. Over the centuries, we have harnessed science, technology, and innovation to improve agricultural productivity. But this is not to say that we no longer need to worry about food security. In fact, it is one of the pressing global challenges of today.

The demand for food continues to grow both in volume and complexity. The global population has grown from around 2.5 billion in 1950, to 8 billion in 2022. It is expected to hit 9.7 billion by 2050. A big part of this growth will come from Asia. Simultaneously, our populations are also aging. In 2020, there were 1 billion people worldwide aged 60 and above. By 2050, this figure is expected to double. These statistics mean that, going forward, we will have more mouths to feed and more diverse nutritional needs to meet. This growing demand is also occurring at a time when food systems are become more fragile and vulnerable. Climate change has put traditional food and agriculture models under immense pressure. Extreme climate events like droughts and floods are becoming more frequent, which has affected harvests and output across the world. Disruptions to food supply chains have been compounded by challenges like pandemics and geopolitics, as COVID, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the tensions in the Middle East have taught us.

Against this backdrop, the key lesson for all countries is that we need to build up capacity and capabilities to strengthen global food resilience and meet anticipated food needs. This is an urgent task, even if many of us may never achieve full food self-sufficiency. Singapore, for example, imports more than 90% of our food. Given our resource constraints as a small, highly urbanised island, we will always face challenges in safeguarding our food security. Nevertheless, we have set out an ambitious goal of “30 by 30” – to build up our agri-food industry’s capabilities and capacity to sustainably produce 30% of our nutritional needs by 2030.

Innovation will be the key enabler in accelerating our efforts towards this goal. The objective is not just to create solutions that improve food output and productivity in Singapore. We also aim to share these solutions across the region and the world, where many countries are facing similar constraints and challenges. This is why innovation and technology are a key part of every Industry Transformation Map, including the ITM for the Food Manufacturing sector. Through the ITM, we seek to establish Singapore as a trusted food and nutrition node, and a launchpad into Asia for quality food brands. A*STAR and Enterprise Singapore have launched a Food Manufacturing Grant Call to seek R&D solutions that boost our food manufacturers’ competitiveness – by differentiating local products through nutritional properties, packaging and sustainable value propositions.

Since 2019, we have invested more than S$300 million into the Singapore Food Story R&D Programme. This national programme aims to strengthen our food resilience by supporting research on food security and safety, as well as innovation in food production and manufacturing. Since 2022, the second phase of the Singapore Food Story R&D programme has focused on four key domains. One of these domains is future foods such as alternative proteins. These allow food production to be scaled up locally without having to rely on the space-intensive practices of traditional animal farming and husbandry. They also have the potential to be more nutritious and sustainable than traditional meats. This can lower the environmental impact of food production and improve public health outcomes.

But as everyone is aware, innovation can be a tough journey. I have met many startups and founders who have described innovation as both a sprint and a marathon. A sprint because speed is critical to achieving breakthroughs and securing a competitive edge. And at the same time, a marathon because stamina and momentum are needed to nurture innovative ideas from inception to commercialisation. In traditional agriculture, we often hear the term “from farm to fork”. In the case of future foods, the journey “from lab to ladle” often requires intensive R&D efforts over a significant gestation period. Alternative proteins, particularly cultivated or cell-cultured proteins, remain expensive to produce and challenging to scale. This has limited their adoption by consumers globally.

To address such challenges, Singapore takes an ecosystem approach in organising our efforts across the research, innovation and enterprise domains. To accelerate new and impactful scientific breakthroughs, we encourage and activate cross-sectoral collaborations – between government, academia, industry and venture capital. This way, we can mobilise expertise, talent and resources across the value chain. Over the years, this ecosystem approach has borne fruit in domains like biomedical sciences and advanced manufacturing. In fact, where we are today, Biopolis, is a good example of how deep ecosystem investments have supported the advancement of science and technology, as well as the transformation of the Singapore economy. It is a place where research institutions and companies are co-located, accelerating innovation and shortening the path for translation.

It is commendable that Nurasa has set up this Food Tech Innovation Centre as a platform for partners to come together to innovate. This will benefit not just Singapore, but also the wider region. Xiu Ling earlier mentioned the growing demand across Asia for sustainable and nutritious food solutions. As we open this Food Tech Innovation Centre, it is timely to think about how Singapore can better harness our food ecosystem to both meet our national goals and support wider regional needs. Let me make 3 suggestions in this regard.

First, we must reduce the costs of innovation and lower barriers to entry for new ideas, allowing for waves of breakthroughs and creating a differentiating edge. For innovation to be impactful, we must enable the best minds to scale the most promising ideas, empowered by the right expertise, equipment and infrastructure. We must therefore continue mobilising the ecosystem to pool resources together to support subsequent generations of innovators. Public-private partnerships can help to accelerate innovation by kickstarting R&D in areas of emerging technology, facilitating talent exchange, and minimising duplications in investments. Doing so will enable more viable pathways to translation, commercialisation, and scaling for impact. For example, 2 of the joint labs within this Food Tech Innovation Centre are public-private partnerships between Nurasa, ScaleUp Bio, A*STAR and other research institutions. Supported by the Singapore Food Story R&D Programme, these joint labs focus on fermentation and food processing. They work with startups, companies and research institutions to upscale future foods by translating research findings into prototypes, new ingredients and various food formats. Indeed, this Food Tech Innovation Centre exemplifies how public-private partnerships can play a useful role by offering “innovation as a service”, as Xiu Ling said earlier. The Centre’s shared infrastructure and equipment will enable more pilot-scale efforts in future foods, and support users in translating their research into regional markets. By bringing together a diverse range of users in a single physical facility, this Innovation Centre can also contribute to the cross-pollination of ideas among different stakeholders in the ecosystem.

This leads to my second point – we must develop a broad and holistic bench of talent for the food sector, including in food science, technology, and innovation. Singapore’s Institutes of Higher Learning, or IHLs, already offer programmes for those interested in pursuing careers in food science and technology, and nutrition. It is commendable that efforts at this Food Tech Innovation Centre tap on scientific talent across our IHLs, including the Singapore Institute of Technology, National University of Singapore, and Singapore Polytechnic’s Food Innovation and Resource Centre. Even as we build depth of domain expertise, we must also develop a pipeline of talent cutting across research, translation and commercialisation. This will sustain and amplify the impact of innovation and new breakthroughs that strengthen food security. It will also unlock new economic opportunities in the form of new jobs and value chains. By bringing together different stakeholders across the value chain, platforms like this Food Tech Innovation Centre can help talent develop more holistically.

This brings me to my final point – Singapore’s food innovation ecosystem must build bridges and facilitate connections with the rest of Asia, so as to catalyse innovations with regional impact. The need for more innovative and sustainable food systems is a common challenge and opportunity across Asia. As a Global-Asia node for technology, innovation and enterprise, Singapore is keen to work with partners to develop innovative solutions that can shape better lives for people and communities in our region and around the world. In addition to tapping on our talent pool, the diverse Asian population in Singapore provides a useful market testbed for innovators seeking to develop future food solutions catering to wide-ranging Asian palates. It is therefore heartening to hear that Nurasa is working with partners on food concepts, such as plant-based products, that are customised to Asian tastes and markets. I look forward to meeting some of you later during the tour of the facility, and sampling some of these customised products. It is also encouraging that Nurasa is supporting Temasek Trust’s Amplifier Programme – to support and equip high-impact start-ups in Asia with the tools and skillsets to achieve commercial scale and viability. Going forward, I hope that Nurasa and your partners will tap on this facility to build even stronger cross-border partnerships and bring fresh ideas, talent and capital together to create innovative solutions for all.

To conclude, innovation is an important enabler in building a better, healthier and more sustainable world, including a future with greater food security. This Food Tech Innovation Centre is a good example of how our ecosystem can play as “Team Singapore”. The provision of shared infrastructure can bring good people and great ideas together. With the further support of public and private sector players, users will be able to test and scale with greater ease. This is how we can support innovation and achieve impact in Singapore and beyond.

Congratulations once again to Nurasa, Temasek, A*STAR and all other partners on this milestone. I look forward to the many exciting innovations and breakthroughs that will emerge in the years ahead, as you work together to develop holistic, sustainable and accessible nutrition for all. Thank you.

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