Strengthening Singapore’s Egg Supply Resilience through various MoUs
The Singapore Food Agency (SFA) has accredited Brunei Darussalam (“Brunei”) as a new source to export hen shell eggs to Singapore. This was announced by Minister for Sustainability and the Environment Grace Fu during her visit to Golden Chick Livestock Farm Sdn Bhd in Brunei on 13 December 2022. Golden Chick Livestock Farm is the first Bruneian farm to export eggs to Singapore. This brings the number of countries and regions accredited to export hen shell eggs to Singapore to 17, up from 12 in 2019.
Singapore and Brunei share long-standing and close bilateral trade relations. The signing of various Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) in recent years underscores both countries’ commitment in deepening collaboration in food security. These include the MOU to enhance collaboration in agrifood and agro-technology in February 2021, as well as the MOU on strengthening trade and investment in food and medical products in August 2022. The accreditation of Brunei as a new country source for eggs is another step towards augmenting food cooperation between both countries, as Brunei looks to produce eggs for export while Singapore diversifies its egg import sources further.
Eggs imported into Singapore must come from accredited sources that meet SFA’s strict food safety standards and animal health standards.
Currently, egg imports account for approximately 70 percent of egg supply. Efforts to diversify the nation’s egg supply over the past three years have helped us to withstand supply disruptions arising from unexpected events due to disease issues and geopolitical tensions and ensured a stable supply of eggs in Singapore. For example, in 2021, imported eggs from sources such as Thailand, Australia, Spain and Poland contributed to some 18 percent of Singapore’s egg supply, up from 2 percent in 2019. SFA will continue to actively accredit new sources, work closely with the industry to diversify their supplies, and strengthen their resiliency including through Business Continuity Planning.
Local egg production currently contributes to about 30 percent of our total egg consumption and complements efforts on import source diversification. The upcoming development of the fourth egg farm in Singapore with a state-of-the-art, productive and sustainable egg facility will further strengthen the resilience of our local egg supply. When fully operational, our local egg farms will meet about 50 percent of Singapore’s egg demand and contribute towards Singapore’s 30-by-30 goal to build the agri-food industry’s capability and capacity to sustainably produce 30 percent of Singapore’s nutritional needs by 2030.
