As of February this year, more than 100 catering businesses participated in the “Farm-to-Table Accreditation Program”, an increase of at least eight times from the 11 in the early stage of the 2023 plan.

Minister of Sustainable Development and Environment Fu Haiyan revealed the above data when responding to a question from the official committee member Xu Jinli in writing on Wednesday (February 26).

The Singapore Food Bureau launched the Farm-to-Table Recognition Programme in March 2023, encouraging companies to support local agricultural products.

According to the plan, in any procurement category of eggs, leafy vegetables, bean sprouts or fish, the operator can obtain the recognition mark if the purchase volume of local agricultural products accounts for 15% of the total purchase value. The logo is divided into three levels: the primary is one category for procurement, the intermediate is two, and the advanced is three or more.

Fu Haiyan said that the reason why consumers choose local ingredients is not necessarily because of this plan, and other factors such as publicity may also have an impact. Despite this, the feedback from the catering industry participating in the plan was good, and the number of operators increased from 11 in March 2023 to more than 100 in February this year, indicating that the plan is becoming more and more popular.

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Fresh Farmers Association cooperates with farms to sell low-priced pesticide-free vegetables and Xinzhou Afrofish in affordable supermarkets

Fresh Farmers Association cooperates with farms to sell low-priced pesticide-free vegetables and Xinzhou Afrofish in affordable supermarkets

The number of local farms has remained stable for three years. The Food Bureau promised to continue to support the industry.

The number of local farms has remained stable for three years. The Food Bureau promised to continue to support the industry.

Currently, participants include McDonald's, a fast food giant that uses local eggs, Chilli Api Catering, a catering provider that uses local eggs and bean sprouts, and Resorts World Sentosa, which uses local eggs, leafy vegetables and bean sprouts.

Fu Haiyan welcomed more operators to join the program and pointed out that the Food Bureau will continue to pay attention to the implementation of the program and collect feedback from participants to evaluate the results. The Food Bureau will also work closely with local farms to increase productivity and provide quality agricultural products at competitive prices.

In order to continue to support agricultural and food industry operators in using technology to promote transformation, the government has allocated 60 million yuan to establish an agricultural and food industry transformation fund.