Singapore’s S$80 million vertical farm must pass the 50-cent test to succeed
Local producers can bridge the price gap between their produce and those of importers by selling better
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THE Singapore Food Agency’s 2026 farmland tender closed in July. Two vegetable-farming plots in Lim Chu Kang and Sungei Tengah drew just five bidders; the Lim Chu Kang parcel received only a single bid – and even that was the applicant’s second choice.
The lukewarm tender contrasts sharply with January’s high-profile opening of the world’s tallest indoor vertical farm – an S$80 million facility coming in at 23.3 metres and five storeys – built by home-grown agritech company Greenphyto.
Its first-year output is 200 tonnes, but its total designed capacity is 2,000 tonnes – equivalent to that of dozens of hectares of vegetable fields. Greenphyto’s produce already sits in major supermarkets such as FairPrice and Sheng Siong under the Hydrogreens brand.
