Growing demand for organic food in Singapore opens up prospects for Peruvian exporters

Growing demand for organic food in Singapore opens up opportunities for exporters from North America and Europe. As an island country with only 701 km2 of land, Singapore has less than 2150 hectares dedicated to agriculture. With a population of more than 4.5 million, most food has to be imported, either within the region or from North America or Europe.

According to Erick Aponte, commercial advisor of PromPerú in Hong Kong, in the last decade, some Singaporeans started to change their eating habits in favour of healthier products, especially those with health problems. In addition, there are many expatriates who tend to maintain a wellness lifestyle. These two categories are major consumers of healthy organic food.

In view of the growing market demand, the number of health shops importing organic products started to grow.

In the last 5 years, Singaporean supermarkets started to enter the organic markets, including strong supermarket chains such as Cold Storage and NTUC FairPrice.

Major Malaysian-based organic fresh food producer Zenxin Organic Food recorded a year-on-year increase of more than 10% since 2010.

According to director Tai Seng Yee, despite having existed for more than 2 decades, the organic market is still a niche, and he believes this will change.