S$25.7 million of S$60 million Agri-food Cluster Transformation Fund used as at April
Farmers can tap its energy-efficiency component to reduce electricity costs, though the fund does not directly offset these costs
THE Singapore Food Agency has awarded S$25.7 million of the S$60 million available under the Agri-food Cluster Transformation (ACT) Fund to 42 companies across 68 projects, as at end-April this year.
This fund supports the transformation of the agri-food sector into one that is highly productive, climate-resilient and resource-efficient.
“So there are still funds available for companies that want to tap into this fund to expand their business, adopt technologies and use it for energy-efficiency purposes as well,” Senior Minister of State for Sustainability and the Environment Koh Poh Koon said in Parliament on Wednesday (Aug 7).
People’s Action Party (PAP) Member of Parliament (MP) Melvin Yong (Tanjong Pagar GRC) asked whether the ACT Fund could be extended to offset high operating expenses, such as rising electricity costs.
Responding to the supplementary question, Dr Koh said directly offsetting operating expenses could “well end up having the perverse effect of paying for an inefficient player to offset the cost at detriment to taxpayers’ money”.
Instead, the government wants to fund farms so that they have “durability and sustainability for the longer term, and fundamentally change the way the company operates for (a) more sustainable future”, he said.
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He reiterated that the ACT Fund has been enhanced with energy-efficiency programmes, which can be used for energy audits and assessing operations, equipment and processes to identify and adopt more energy-efficient measures.
This could deflate some of the operating costs, the minister said. For example, these solutions could include adopting solar panels for renewable energy, which could be cheaper than energy from the grid.
Asked about whether the supply and demand aggregator for local produce spearheaded by the Singapore Agro-Food Enterprises Federation (Safef) can be extended to supply local hawkers, Dr Koh said this can be explored, but is “not a straightforward issue”.
“Many of these hawkers and many of the businesses have already established relationships with specific suppliers, and it’s probably not so easy for them to change this kind of relationship overnight.”
Still, he urged interested hawker associations and groups of hawkers in localities keen to participate in group-buying to approach Safef.
“I think Safef will be prepared to work with them and discuss longer-term contracting models, where there’s more constancy of supply with good quality, and also better demand for the farmers themselves.”
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