Investment company Temasek has signed an agreement with the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*Star) to establish the Food Tech Innovation Centre. "The centre aims to accelerate the development of promising food tech companies and provide pilot-scale facilities to help feed a growing world population sustainably", the company says.
The state investor said the memorandum of understanding with A*Star is part of a renewed focus on increasing its investments in companies and start-ups at home and across Asia that use innovative technologies to produce food.
The announcement was made at a virtual media briefing yesterday, against the backdrop of the Apac Agri-Food Innovation Summit also held online for the first time.
Separately at the summit, Mr. Alvin Tan, Minister of State for Trade and Industry, had earlier highlighted Singapore's achievements in realising its ambition to produce as much as 30 per cent of its food needs locally by 2030.
Singapore plans to achieve the goal by supporting local and foreign firms that use indoor growing technologies, such as hydroponics, vertical farming and data analytics, to optimise production.
Temasek has invested more than US$5 billion (S$6.7 billion) in the agri-food space over the past five years, nurturing a portfolio of more than 40 agri-food companies.