Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore, Mr Heng Swee Keat,
Deputy Ambassador of the Netherlands Embassy, Provó Kluit,
Our Partners,
Deputy Chairman of PwC Singapore, Mr Ong Chao Choon,
CEO of Rabobank Asia, Ms Diane Boogaard,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentleman,

Good evening.

Thank you for joining us at the Asia Food Challenge Report Dinner.

I am sure you know, one of the biggest crisis facing mankind today is climate change. We are already seeing the destructive impact that it has on the environment.

We will see more droughts, rising sea levels, communities displaced and disruption of our food systems. We all know urgent action is needed to help slow global warming.

Feeding more with less

A growing population actually worsens the problem. Our planet will have to accommodate almost 10 billion people by 2050 – 2 billion more than today.

Asia will be home to 4 billion people by 2030, effectively adding another Indonesia in the next decade!

How will that occur without stretching us past breaking point?

Population growth and rising affluence will lead to a 60% increase in global food demand – outstripping population growth.

With increasing consumption, there will be even more pressure on our planet. We need to act urgently to find innovative solutions to generate clean energy efficiently, promote a zero waste circular economy, produce more clean water, and feed more people – all sustainably.

Tonight, we will focus on the food challenge of the future. How do we feed more people more nutritious food, using fewer resources to produce it?

Our Asia Food Challenge

By 2030, Asia will be home to two thirds of the world’s middle income population. Consumers here will demand more protein and better nutrition. They will demand higher food safety standards, and they are looking for sustainably-sourced food.

However, farm yields are increasingly threatened by climate change, urbanisation and soil degradation.

There is an urgent need to improve the entire supply chain, to ensure food security. We see this challenge driving innovative solutions for the sector.

At Temasek, we see this as an opportunity to put our capital to good use. In Asia, there have been insufficient investments targeted at introducing new and disruptive technologies across the Agri-Food ecosystem.

The food and agri industry in Asia is highly complex, large and fragmented. Our region is complicated by the diversity of countries and languages, stages of economic development, differences in regulatory systems, and cultural and dietary preferences.

It is challenging for players in the chain to navigate and implement scalable solutions across Asia.

One of the challenges the Western market faced was finding a sustainable solution to the demand for protein, particularly when one of the key sources of protein is beef. Impossible Foods was able to create a plant-based protein burger that could replicate the taste and nutritional values of real meat.

And each Impossible Burger pattie is created using 87% less water, 96% less land and almost 90% fewer greenhouse gas emissions!

In Asia, we also face that same sustainable protein gap, but our tastes and diets are themselves distinctly different, so burger patties may not be the full solution – even though they are great burgers!

So far, most of the agri-tech companies have focused on alternative protein in the meat and dairy spaces. In the Asian market, crops such as soy and chickpea are likely to have a greater impact.

Ripe for disruption

Asia will not solve its food challenge through a continuation of traditional farming practices, or even modernising those practices.

New technologies will be needed to disrupt old models. Objectives will be to increase yields, reduce the environmental impact of farming, improve the safety, traceability and nutritional value of food and reduce waste.

The supply chain needs to become much more efficient, to bring fresh food to consumers in their increasingly urban settings.

Innovation must stretch across the whole food, agriculture and aquaculture supply chains – from processing to production, distribution and ultimately to the consumer’s plate or bowl.

Asia’s environment and population density lends itself to disruptive innovation in food production.

Greater traceability, sustainable animal proteins, and controlled environment farming such as urban farming and greenhouses, can be enabled by technology in Asia.

Innovations can be developed with economies of scale that will flow through to the end consumer.

We can’t do this alone. A concerted effort will be needed to fully unlock the investment potential.

All stakeholders need to work together. This includes corporates and startups, investors, researchers and governments. Together, we need to foster technology-led innovation and commercialisation. Hence, this event this week provides a good platform for networking among the different players in this sector.

Building capabilities and an Agri-Food ecosystem

We have the chance to create the next Asia Agri-Food Tech hub. To do this, we need to drive innovation, encourage private-public sector collaboration and create a sustainable Agri-Food ecosystem for the region.

We also need to work hard at standardisation, so different regulatory regimes and complexity don’t become a barrier to innovation.

Temasek has been helping to cultivate capabilities through the Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory (TLL), which is doing research around innovative plant sciences and biotech.

One of their early innovations was to help cultivate a more resilient breed of rice that could withstand extreme conditions, such as floods and droughts, as well as resist pests. They have also developed more resilient fish stock using stronger genetics, improving productivity and yield.

I believe all of us can do our part to build up the next sustainable Agri-Food Tech ecosystem in Asia. We owe it not just to our stakeholders today, but to those in generations to come, to make a difference for our communities and planet.

Before I close, I would also like to take this opportunity to thank our partners, Rabobank and PwC, for partnering us on this Asia Food Challenge report. Their industry knowledge has been instrumental in helping us identify the challenges and opportunities, and helping to put the spotlight on Asia.

I hope you will find tonight’s discussions engaging and thought-provoking.

Thank you.