SINGAPORE: Singapore may be a food haven, but locally grown produce is not often on the menu – after all, the island imports 90 per cent of its food.
Locally farmed red snapper, vegetables and quail eggs are in these dishes from The Local Farm Bistro. I didn’t expert dessert to also feature local produce, but there was a range of ice creams and sorbets made from local spinach, kale or arugula. The new products, which are only available here and at a few hotels, is one of The Local Farm’s forays to diversify the demand for local produce.
Mr Ray Poh, founder of Artisan Green, said that ice plants are one of the new varieties they are trying out, along with oyster leaf – a plant that chefs call the “vegan oyster”.Artisan Green's founder, Ray Poh, giving CNA journalists a taste of the ice plant they grow in their indoor farm. Plants growing in Artisan Green's indoor farm.
The farm is also looking into specialty crops because it wants to cater to the food service industry and supply to hotels, restaurants and cafes. Explaining the challenges, Mr Lim said it is easier to grow vegetables as the crop cycle is shorter, but to grow a dwarf grapevine takes eight months. A usual grapevine can take three years to mature.
“In this case, we are deploying a lot of investment in the R&D for automation. Hopefully, through lowering the cost of manpower, we can lower the cost of production and sell it at a lot more affordable price.”Mr Philip Gu, founder and CEO of Stemcell United, thrusts his hand into a net and grips a lobster, which he lifts triumphantly into the air.He also asks us to haul up a rope thick with mussels, which have been feeding on the farm’s main produce – seaweed.
He thinks that planting “sea crops” is one way Singapore can expand its food production because only 1 per cent of the country’s land is used for farming, but there is vastly more space at sea.
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